My thoughts have wondered of pretty far recently. I was thinking if it was possible to choose our evolution…

My rough translation of the evolution concept

Any species will adapt itself to its environment. Trough its life it will make minor changes to small habits to most effectively keep itself and its offspring alive. 

When it gets a wider range of options (for instance to walk on two instead of four legs) the best odds decide the choice, depending on the environment. (if the berries are high up in the trees, it would be useful to try walking on two legs, if they are not, why bother?) The choice is often only rewarded by not going extinct any time soon.

Sounds pretty solid to me. Not such a bad deal if you’re not to much aware of the pressure behind the choice.

What if the brain starts to grow?

If instinct motorized evolution, it could be that the growing brain killed it. A bit like George Orwell’s 1984. But is there a chance that human evolution survives the bigger brain and prevails? Here’s a theory.

For about as long as the planet exists, instinct had made it’s inhabitants what they are. Until our brains were capable of overpowering it. We began making our choices on the bases of reason, thought and sensibility. Although I don’t know the reason for this change, it was very important. After this point we found other ways to settle arguments and work together, we developed concepts like time and consideration, as well as the ability to express ourselves and educate each other.

So far, beautiful

What bothers me is since the growing brain came into play, we seem to have drifted further and further away from our instincts. Choices are based on reason and thought still, but both are as always influenced by our environment. Since the last centuries that has changed. 

Not only reaches our environment all around the globe now and has it become many times busier, If our instinct still rules, it is no longer judging on personal knowledge of its environment, but on the information it gets from others about it.

No problem, if the information were appropriate, objective and complete

If not the instinctive choices will be wrong and allow our species to ignore the restrictions to it’s possibilities.

Could it be that we are right now living in a time where the choice to know or to believe has a word in our evolution? Could our highly developed brain have gotten so smart that it can understand the situation? And will it provide our instinct with a choice or with a fact?

To put it short:

• Instinct powered the growing success of evolution.
• Instinct empowered the development of bigger and better brains.
• Bigger and better brains appear capable of fooling instinct.
• Instinct can fail to see the limits of it’s species’ possibilities.
• Exceeding it’s possibilities is fatal for any species.

I just know I am going to lose more sleep over this…