That is contained in the “trickle down” theory. Unfortunately, no matter how much wealth there is , the stream never seems to trickle down all the way and runs dry halfway down the ladder.
Wow it’s amazing how much of a different channel you are on. I’m not talking about passing on economic wealth, I’m talking about passing on wisdom and culture.
Wisdom and culture is demonstrated in the relationship to and respect of the environment and the distribution and conservation of resources.
What we have is an insatiable taste for excess. CAPITALISM!
“In order to do his best, man will try to survive the worst he can do to himself”
Loosely translated…
Who is “we” in this sentence and how do we “have” this thing?
Humans in general. Our mutated brain allows us to influence our environment far beyond what we are naturally entitled to. Our brain is not a product of gradual evolution via natural selection, but a result of a mutation that far outstrips the mental abilities of other great apes who are following the normal evolutionary trajectory.
We are the extremes of kindness of Bonobos, the cruelty of regular Chimps, the controlled brawn of Gorillas and the wisdom of Orangutans and we have not yet acquired the genetic balance that bestows a sense of responsibility for our actions.
When we have learned to curb our excesses and find a moderate balance of all 4 character traits , we may be worthy of being the conservators of this planet.
But our wanton excessive behaviors may well be causal to our extinction, before we reach intellectual maturity.
I think current events may portent a looming disaster of global proportions.
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You know this thread reminds me of an old joke I once heard.
When faced with a difficult situation, we try to find a solution in a comfortable or familiar place. This is because of fear. But you can’t solve the problem this way, just as you can’t find your lost key that you dropped in the park under a streetlight. Fight fear proudly. Success is given to those who fight fear and win.
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I can’t remember the scientist’s name; it will come to me, but this reminds me of an online conference I listened to years ago. It revolved around the idea of taking charge of our evolution. Presenters were all excited about where the human race was headed and had ideas on how to get there. Near the end, they got an evolutionary biologist in an interview, one that some of them had been referring to throughout. In the first few minutes of him talking, he said, “no”, that we can’t do that, that evolution doesn’t work like that, you can’t decide how you will evolve.
I don’t know what you think a “normal evolutionary trajectory” is, or what “genetic balance” looks like, but if you can’t find it in nature, then it doesn’t exist.
Of course events portend disaster. Not even a debate. We’re lemmings, running off a cliff. The troublesome part of what you’re saying here is that there is not only some unnatural error in biology causing all this but that there is nothing we can do but wait for some sort of correction in the order of things to “bestow” “maturity” upon us, then we will be “worthy”.
All evolutionary processes are caused by mutational changes in DNA that offspring inherit.
Normally all these changes are very small and take a long time to build into a functional change. The normal evolutionary trajectory takes a lot of time.
This is good because any small detrimental changes have little immediate adverse effect. All DNA contains minor defects which do not affect the organism as a whole.
There are different types of evolutionary processes:
(Mechanisms: the processes of evolution)
Mechanisms of evolution: selection, mutation, migration, and more.
Microevolution: evolution within a population.
Speciation: how new species arise.
Macroevolution: evolution above the species level.
Divergent evolution: evolution that leads to the development of different species from a common ancestor.
Convergent evolution: evolution that leads to the development of similar features in unrelated species.
Parallel evolution: evolution that leads to the development of similar features in related species.
The human genome contains about 98% non-coding DNA, which is sometimes referred to as "junk DNA"123. However, this non-coding DNA is now recognized as vital for studying human health and disease3.
But occasionally there is a drastic mutational change that results in an immediate and critical change in the offspring that affects ability to procreate, at which point natural selection weeds that individual with drastic mutational defects from the gene pool. But many changes in DNA that do not affect survivability just creates a cosmetic variety within the same species.
Example: * Adaptation to environment: Mice with fur colors matching their environment may have better survival chances.
But rarely, there is a large beneficial mutational change that gives the offspring an immediate survival advantage over its ancestor. This often results in the “speciation” of a new branch of that species and a split from the larger gene pool of the “common ancestor”.
Speciation
Speciation is how a new kind of plant or animal species is created. Speciation occurs when a group within a species separates from other members of its species and develops its own unique characteristics. There are four major variants of speciation: allopatric, peripatric, parapatric, and sympatric.
This is what occurred with the appearance of humans. The drastic chromosomal change due to a mutational fusion of 2 chromosomes creating a sigle chromosome much larger than the component chromosomes, created humans in a single generation.
We can tell because only humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes, whereas all other great apes have 24 pairs of chromosomes.
I believe this mutation was responsible for a more complex brain growth having an immediate effect on the brain’s functional abilities.
That’s not going to end, either.
This doesn’t address what I’m saying.
But evolution doesn’t happen in a vacuum.
It is totally dependent on what is happening in the environments organisms exist within.
If you want to approach it from a poetic angle, it’s like creature genes are in a dialogue with the evolving Earth.
Nurture via Nature and all that.
Why is that left out of this discussion?
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No, that is misleading. It is not totally dependend on the environmentm unless you take it to extremes causes. A healthy animal can be struck by lighning or be maimed in some accidental way anywhere in he world, regardless of the environment.
Hence the probaility factor that is always figured to the equation. An egg can be affected by injury, etc. And mutations can very subtle or disabilitating.
It is rare that mutations like human gene 2 happen that advances the species drastically. The human brain is way past the brain of our hominid cousins, who are doing quite well except in competition with humans. Apes don’t cut human hands off to make ashtrays.
One can make a similar argument about the Industrial revolution, that has so affected the entire world and global climates.
But of course anything that happens on earth is a product of the earth’s environment in some related way. There are those rare events that are often deterministic of great change . A comet impact that brings an ice age.
Well, that depends on what “it” we are talking about.
It’s like what you chose to quote made no sense, with also consider the environment it was written within
I stand by the concept and I don’t think happenstance or stray meteors changes that.
A building’s form is totally dependent on what materials you have at your disposal.
Although I’ll accept that “totally” is a totally sucky term to use, I’m sure there’s something more appropriately descriptive out there.
Just look at who “we” picked to lead “us”. Because we love and admire power!
This goes all the way back to “survival”, which is a hardwired mathematical equation of durability and ability to persist under stress. Evolution via Natural Selection.