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    '   anada                    "Evolution?"                    25 feb  '
   '     297                     by Schoolboy                     2001    '
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        Listen, I know evolution, as a subject, is pretty dull.  It's a fact,
 it's far too slow to really matter to us and there's not a whole lot we can
 do about it.  I'd be the first to admit I ain't exactly getting chucked out
 of the local library every day at closing time reading up on it but there's
 a misconception that everyone seems to have about evolution that I feel I
 need to put right.

        Every so often I hear people say, "If evolution's correct why haven't
 all creatures become as intelligent as us" and they want to know why so many
 animals/species have stayed as they are for millions of years, like
 crocodiles or horseshoe crabs.  They are mis-interpreting the terms "natural
 selection" and "survival of the fittest".

        Evolution is not constant progress; it doesn't mean every creature
 gets better.  What it is all about is adaptation to surroundings. That's
 all.  The byproduct of this process is, depending on the context, more
 complex life-forms.  That's the point.  The real *aim* is not more complex/
 intelligent species, just better adapted ones.  The more suited,
 physiologically and mentally, you are to your long term environment then the
 more likely you are to survive.

        That is, you are most "fit" for the environment; the environment, by
 its state has "selected" you for survival.  Think about it.  Why *have*
 crocodiles and alligators stayed as they are since the dinosaurs, that's
 60-100 million years?  Give me one good reason why they *should* change.
 They have no predators, they already are excellent swimmers but need to lay
 their eggs in the ground where they stay and hatch extremely effectively
 (hence the obvious need for legs despite the time they spend in water).
 They'll also eat anything that moves so their fate was never tied to a
 specific prey species' survival or extinction.  Has their environment
 changed since the dinosaurs?  No.  So they haven't.  Simple.

        I also can't see many, or any, changes happening with us over time in
 the future.  Why?  Because we can change our environment to suit us (houses,
 igloos, central heating) or we alter ourselves artificially to survive (i.e.
 clothes).

        We didn't *turn* dark-skinned to survive in Africa, that's how we
 *started*.  But as we spread as a species into the colder environs of Europe
 and the rest of the northern hemisphere we lost the protection melatonin
 provided as we simply didn't need it.  That wasn't progress but adaptation.
 Not even creationists can debate that this pattern exists.  We didn't become
 better examples of Homosapiens, just more prone to sunburn.  And the sign
 that supports my belief that we'll not need to evolve or adapt anymore is
 that now millions of dark-skinned humans live perfectly healthily in the
 north because our vitamin intake and our immediate environment is in our
 hands.

        I'm no biologist or expert, I've simply listened to scientists on the
 TV more closely than most.  But I think it helps to put us and all life--in
 the universe--in context.  We may be top of the tree on Earth but that's
 because we've reached an intellectual critical mass where evolution to us is
 now meaningless.  We have defeated evolution, or at least the evolutionary
 pressures created by this planet.  On other planets there may be much more
 demanding conditions that could throw up many more interesting developments
 in life there.  Conditions we would not have survived.  Who knows?
                                                                            
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 `   anada297   by Schoolboy                        (c) 2001 anada e'zine   `