I almost didn’t post this today because I thought “Yesterday my post was all about me and my thoughts; I should provide a little more variety for my friends and readers (who are friends I just haven’t met yet) than back to back posts about me.”
But then I realized that this is my blog, and if you’re looking for something not about me… well, you’ve come to the wrong place.
Funny how that works, isn’t it?
So, because this is my blog, I am about to go into a non-research-based rambling that will be composed of my own moderately uninformed yet increasingly nerdy thoughts. I might even drop some vocab words I haven’t used since Pre-IB Biology class in 2002. Consider yourself warned.
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I have been wondering something about evolution lately.
(Boy, if you had a dollar for every time you’d heard that…)
Why do we reproduce?
Here’s why I’m wondering this (and it has nothing to do – ok, little to do – with the present state of my cankles):
Alright, so there’s a bang, it’s big, and then there’s…matter and stuff. Then that stuff turns into living stuff, which I like to picture as little squishy protozoan. In my mind they look kind of like jelly fish, only more… Cenozoic. Life for these single celled organisms, it’s all about survival. Mr. Amoeba with the awesome Nike Shox can outrun the other amoebae who might want to eat him (because let’s face it: if there exist only a few species, cannibalism is a way of life, y’all), and therefore he lives longer. There might be a Ms. Amoeba out there too who has extra long cuspids and is thus able to eat rather than be eaten.
Cool, so here’s what we’ve got so far: bang, matter and stuff, which comes alive (eukaryotes, ciliates, and Golgi bodies, oh my!), which survives if it’s got sweet traits (or kicks). Check.
So, where do the cute little baby amoebae come in? I mean, I know that amoebae do the whole “reproduction sans mate” thing (I always thought “asexual’ sounded weird)… but why reproduce at all?
“Well, to pass on their genes. It’s an instinct.”
Right, but how did it become or evolve into an instinct? I mean, if Nike Shox make Mr. A live longer, I get it, but why did an instinct to reproduce develop in him, or in an entire population for that matter? How is reproducing beneficial to the individual’s survival?
Because, guys, I’m telling you from experience, it’s not.
I mean it is an emotionally amazing and fulfilling experience, sure, but I don’t think amoebae started out as emotionally motivated beings. Survival is where it’s at, remember?
To reproduce is a nonessential activity.
How does needing to eat 500 more calories a day, an inability to move easily, or joint pain benefit the parent’s chance of survival? Yes, I know those are human components of what it takes to create offspring, not an amoeba’s, but it has to be taxing in some way on the body of the reproducer. Little protozoan¬† may need to scrounge for more food, move less, or be generally incapacitated for a period of time (if even it’s just a short little mitosis break), which would not lend itself to surviving in an ‘amoeba eat amoeba’ world.
How and why did the protozoan develop an urge to do something detrimental to their survival, let alone nonessential?
In other words: I struggle to understand how “survive” evolved into “help little ones survive for the sake of your gene pool“.
Does that make me a nerd with too much thinking time on my hands?
Don’t answer that.
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(Post-script: A Creator. That’s how. But, just for fun sometimes I like to follow trains of thought that don’t necessarily fit into my worldview. I’m open minded like that.)
