Modern Darwinism, also known as modern evolutionary synthesis, combines the work of experimental geneticists, natural scientists, and paleontologists, and combines two important findings: evolutionary selection genes and evolutionary mechanisms. Its basic point include:
1. **All evolution can be explained in a way that a genetic mechanism and observed phenomena are unified.**
For example, we want to explain the phenomenon that the teeth of modern people are degenerating relative to the teeth of primitive people. Because modern people inherit the teeth (genetic mechanism), but we eat cooked and soft foods (observed phenomena), the teeth do not need to be so hard to provide sufficient nutrition for the body.
2 **. **Natural selection determine the direction of evolution; biological adaptation to the environment is the result of long-term natural selection.
The accumulation of small favorable mutations over a long period of time can also lead to significant changes in traits; natural selection affects the performance of species in terms of their individual morphology and function in the environment in which they live— a technical term for biology is called phenotype . The result of the interaction is different from traits. Phenotypes are non-heritable. For example, the traits of ancestors are not inherited to the next generation.
- The role of genetic drift cannot be ignored. **Evolution is affected by two factors, “natural selection” and “genetic drift”.**
The drive of natural selection to chase the fittest tirelessly pushes life towards the most adaptive environment, and the result is adaptive evolution. However, evolution is not always adaptive, because natural selection is not the only driving force for evolution . In fact, stochastic factors can also dominate the evolution process, allowing evolution to wander around and even move in an unsuitable direction. This kind of random power that can control evolution but has nothing to do with adaptation is called genetic drift .
- Groups are the basic units of evolution, not individuals. Evolution is due to major changes in the frequency of genes in populations.
For example, the species pig is very successful in terms of hereditary evolution, because after so many years of human breeding, the total number of pigs has increased many times, and genes have continued and spread.
But individually, they are in a very bad situation, and most pigs are slaughtered early. Far less comfortable and comfortable than their ancestors.
Inspiration from biological thinking patterns: 1. Chaos and unpredictability
If we pull the time scale from decades, hundreds of years to hundreds of millions, billions of years, we will find that, in fact, the world is unpredictable and chaotic.
For example, the sun rises from the east every day. Everyone will think, of course, the earth turns from west to east, so it will definitely rise from the east tomorrow. But what if a planet knocks the earth in half? What about collisions? It won’t.
The big logic of biology is that the world is unpredictable. You don’t know if a planet will come over. If there is n’t that asteroid, is the dinosaur still dominating, will there really be intelligent life?
The history of biological evolution shows a biological thinking model and worldview . Our entire life begins with a single cell. Even the appearance of life was a coincidence. Until the emergence of humans, it was an accident. There are countless opportunities for us to be destroyed, and any unexpected factor may make you unable to grow.
All coincidences have made us who we are today.
Therefore, in a chaotic world, only a firm belief in probability , frankly facing the failure in the process, constantly throwing dice, looking for opportunities in change, the complexity of living systems, and the discontinuity of the external environment all make accurate prediction It’s impossible. The entire nature has developed for billions of years, and the ups and downs of living things, accurate prediction is impossible.
2 **, rational**
The second major revelation that biological thinking models bring to me is rationality.
Lao Tzu once said that “the world is innocent, and all things are rude dogs; the saints are innocent, and the people are rude dogs.” That is, you feel very bullish. In the entire history of biological evolution, you are just a small flat leaf boat, which is insignificant.
I think very clearly. Nature does not care about individuals or populations. It only makes rules from the perspective of God, or the rule is evolution—the survival of the fittest . However, countless populations have become extinct, and nature is still alive. This is the rational side of nature.
Give a chestnut. We all think that pandas are nagging. In fact, the reason why pandas are stingy is that they eat bamboo every day and they swell up on the last two cheeks. Eating bamboo for 10 hours a day, of course, seems very embarrassing. We are all used to emotional judgment. In fact, it is severely degraded.
If one day the pandas really go extinct, I don’t feel sorry. The evolution of all populations has resulted from the extinction of individuals and races. This is a rational process. Therefore, don’t let yourself fall into your own emotions.
There is a word called the perspective of God. An entrepreneur who wants to start a business must first look at things from the perspective of God. The so-called God’s perspective is to penetrate oneself deeply and feel the internal changes keenly; to get out of one’s own body can turn oneself into a spectator and observe the occurrence and result of many things. If you understand that this is a metabolism, a biological evolution, you will avoid many so-called sad emotions.
With this mentality, the prosperity and disgrace of nature, the gathering and disengagement of the world, and the change of personnel in the organization are all evolutionary processes.
3. **Enjoy the process**
From a biological perspective, what is the ultimate fate of the individual? What is the fate of the population? You will encounter a particularly contradictory logic called-individual death brings better power to the new birth. For example, the fall of Nokia has allowed countless start-ups in Finland to flourish.
Because the end of life is death . There is a saying in “Three Body”, “Give civilization to the years, but not to the civilization”, that is, to give up everything.
So respect the process. What is the nature of the process? Simply put, it is to find your own sense of mission. As a living body, it will eventually disappear, but at least his insisted mission, shared thoughts, and changes to this world can be left behind. In this process, we promote ourselves, raise our awareness of the world, do things different from others, and do things that change the world. Having this process is enough.
3. Anti-fragility-benefit from uncertainty.
Another important inspiration that biological thinking models bring to me is anti-fragility.
What is the core of anti-fragility? It means to continue to benefit in a volatile world.
Some things can benefit from shocks. When exposed to volatility, randomness, chaos and stress, risk, and uncertainty, they can thrive and grow.
Nietzsche famously said, “Those who can’t kill me will only make me stronger.”
Benefiting from big fluctuations is the ultimate ability of biology . Genetics and mutation, in fact, are one end stable and one looking for opportunities in fluctuations; one is the death of an individual, the other is the evolution of a population; the other is the harsh environment and the more powerful life.
For example, the competition between humans and dinosaurs, when it becomes a fish, there are bigger fish to eat it. It had no choice but to run towards the water. After running, the fish could not swim, but there was no air and the water was muddy. Can only wait to climb up to the land, finally managed to survive, the volcano erupted again. Our ancestors had to hide underground, and when they came out, they found that dinosaurs ruled the world. At this point, our ancestors were quite large. But when it grows large, it is actually harmful and can be easily eaten by dinosaurs. Therefore, it needs to be smaller again, and it is easy to hide in the hole. But the overall competitive pressure of dinosaurs on humans has been great. Because it can’t beat it, humans have to increase their sensory system and brain judgment system to make themselves run faster.
It is precisely because of these extremely harsh environments that our ancestors have received great benefits through anti-fragility. It is also because of this opportunity that it has taken a different path from other creatures-by continuously increasing the ability to sense the world and developing intelligence, it has formed a population like ours today.
This is how the entire biological world survives.
