eBook Pre-amble
PHYSICAL EVOLUTION
AN INTRODUCTION FOR THE BEGINNER
In this first section I want to show that a major result of understanding living systems is that life is fundamentally a set of biological processes that developed using the mechanisms of Evolution to fit into the environmental niches present on Earth. An extension of this is that other and possibly similar biological entities will, with certainty, have developed on other planets in others parts of our Universe. Because humankind is essentially a biological machine it is possible to improve its performance and range of habitats by manufacturing better and more advanced parts i.e. humankind can effectively control its own evolution. The body not the mind has been the more prodigious part of evolution within Earth’s biota and this will continue to play an important role in the future evolution of Homo.
PREAMBLE
The Theory of Evolution is a set of facts for understanding the processes and mechanism operating within the gamodeme or interbreeding population. It involves a change in the gene pool of the inter-breeding population over time [the chronodeme] instigated by changes in the gene set of a single individual [the genome of the individual]. The 18th and 19th centuries were periods of immense inquiry, and a lot of thinking was devoted to trying to understand the natural world. Charles R. Darwin and Alfred R. Wallace [1859] crystallized these thoughts into an understanding of the biological processes responsible for the origin of the diverse group of organisms. The Moravian Monk, J. Gregor Mendel [1865], elucidated the underlying genetic mechanisms whereby this diversity occurred. Many believed that he Laws of Nature were the Laws of God that humankind needed to interpret. The link was not only with religion, often with its poetic and metaphysical views based upon revelation, authority and charismatic leaders, but with philosophy and its views based upon reason, logic, emotion and a quest for knowledge.
Even in the earliest human communities, culture was probably formulated because of the quest for, and acquisition of, knowledge, and its adoption as a survival strategy within the local gamodeme. Wilson [2002] sees the acquisition of religion occurring because of this kind of selection pressure : combining individuals into a cohesive group that were cooperative and fraternal. Joseph Campbell has eloquently stated that the power of myth and legend, as a way of understanding nature, lies at the root of much of human philosophy. Science, in sharing a common urge to trace the history of our Universe back to the beginnings of time and matter, follows this knowledge quest and thus reveals its links with many other aspects of human enquiry.
Humankind is a product of nature and both our physical form and our humanity are born out of our relationship to our environment. The body is a massive sensory tool continually providing input to the brain. The mind interprets the sensory inputs and combines them with memories stored within the brain. Logic rules as the mind
processes the inputs to a massive storage capacity using a conditional statistical methodology. The resultant output is some form of action: perhaps a simple upgrading of memory, the making of a comment or an orgasm. As will be explained the whole process follows the natural Law of Combinatorial Outcome.
Today we are much concerned with Space, the Oceans and the Environment as we struggle to be comfortable in our knowledge of whom and what we are within our Universe of space and time. Part of the philosophy that geology inspires within its participants involves a realization of humankinds place in our Universe, for the geosciences are concerned with the six Great Origins of natural science. A seventh Great Origin is more the concern of anthropology but can be interpreted in terms of the processes acting within the other six.
1. The origin of our Universe.
2. The origin of the Milky Way Galaxy.
3. The origin of the Solar System.
4. The origin of the Earth, including its layered structure.
5. The origin of life.
6. The origin of Homo sapiens including human consciousness1.
7. The origin of cultural gamodemes.
The present stance taken by science for the development of our Universe is that the original size was Planck distance. This represents the original space and time from
which our Universe evolved. From this space-time on, scientists have logically developed a Theory for the formation of our present Universe. After the Plank Era ended, the next few events happened in quick succession: the Hadronic Era ended at 10-6 seconds, the Leptonic Era at 1 second, and the Radiation Era at 1 minute! It took some 10,000 years for energy to evolve before the Matter Era began and 300,000 years before the Decoupling Era when light illuminated our Universe for the first time. The story of our Universe concerns what happened during each of these early eras. Seife [2003] provides an excellent investigative account of the people and factors that are contributing towards our modern knowledge of our Universe.
Science showed, in the 20th century, that trends can be observed within each of the levels that allow an understanding of natural processes. As developments within one level gives raise to the origin of another, observation and deduction allow derivation of fundamental natural laws pertaining to the Earth System. Three of these natural laws play an important role in all of the major origins that concern natural scientists. These are the Law of Instability, the Law of Actualism, and the Law of Combinatorial Outcome. In order to understand the human condition it is necessary to examine what these laws govern and how they are reactive within the world of Homo sapiens, for they affect not only physical evolution but also cultural evolution.
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