Evolution has always been described as an arms race. The predator evolves a form that makes them more adapt at catching a prey, and the prey in turn evolves to avoid the predator. For millions of years there has always been this equilibrium, where no species is really the “king” of everything that totally dominates all.
But humans seem to defy that. We have the capabilities to wipe out virtually every species on this planet, with the exception of possibly bacteria and other single-celled organisms that live in the extreme environments. But even then, we have the capabilities to alter our environments so much that no other species can (ex. global warming, deforestation, ocean pollution…etc). In the past, no creatures could upset this equilibrium of “power” between species. The T-rex may have been the top predator of the dinosaurs, but he doesn’t have the capability to wipe out every other dinosaurs. In fact, palaeontologists describe the bigger dinosaurs like Argentinosaurs as being more powerful than T-rex.
But now humans have the power to change so much. In fact, if we fire every nuclear bomb on this planet, toxify all the soil and ruin the atmosphere, I think we can kill every living thing on this planet, and make it just as inhabitable as the other planets in this solar system.
It always puzzles me how we evolved to gain such power, when no other species have even come close. What happen to the equilibrium?
More Pages:
- Solar Power: What Are Your Thoughts On The Evolution-Creation Science Debate? (4/24/2012)
- Have recent genomic discoveries & inter-species comparisons brought the final death knell to anti-evolution…?
- Nibiru…(Planet X) Thoughts, Ideas Comments?
- Solar Products: How Would You Feel Knowing That God Can Possibly Be An Alien? (4/1/2012)
- Solar Turbines: Is There Any Kind Of Big Battery Solar Power Thing? (7/10/2011)
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
we evolved from monkeys…. why didn’t any other monkey evolve? why just that one species… why did they stop evolving? why didn’t anything evolve into anything as clever as us… humans evolve to control everything around them they need control…. the question is… why don’t animals evolve today? because humans don’t let them CONTROL!
Destructive potential =/= greatness
Your basic assumption is wrong. There is no balance or equilibrium in ecological systems (predator vs prey . . .etc.). Amazingly there is such an array of adaptions that organisms have learned way to cope with one another. There are still many examples where the “balance” is tilted too far in one direction. Which can lead to many adverse effects like extinction. So organisms adapt to live with common neighbors but there is no “balance” that keeps them all in check. Random events happen which can lead to dramatic changes.
But you are right. Humans have quite an impact on the environment. We evolved from apes not too long ago (in the grand scheme of things). Apes are quite remarkable. They use tools and have knowledge of their surroundings which can help them exploit their surroundings.
What your describing sounds somewhat similar to the ‘Red queen hypothesis’ named from alice in wonderland where alice had to keep running just to stand still. The type of evolution you describe is seen between humans and viruses. If you look at HIV its constantly changing just to survive our immune system. Our immune system in turn generates new antibodies to try destroy HIV but it just changes to survive. And its very good at it! Humans have had such a negative impact and ‘jumped ahead’ so much due in no small part to our ability to communicate. Communication makes for one fearsome predator. It just so happens that our progression from primitive humans to where we are today has created such chaos. Were not winning by any means in the ‘rat race’ that is survival however. With antibiotic resistant bacteria on the rise, we may be in serious trouble!
The so-called “arms race” is only part of how evolution works. There are lots of other factors too.
But, to your basic point, it does appear that humans are, at the moment, winning the arms race, can wipe out most other species and, at this moment in time are doing exactly that. It’s hard to know how long this scenario will last.
We are only seeing a snapshot in time though and we have no idea what will happen in the next few hundred thousand or million years which is how evolution has to be measured in the long term.
I think you are basically right on target. But I don’t find it as puzzling.
The picture of evolution as an arms race is reasonably accurate. We have such complex immune systems because bacteria and other pathogens are complex enough to adapt to them … and vice versa; pathogens are complex because of millions of years adapting to ever improving immune systems.
Likewise predator-prey relationships in an ecosystem.
We cannot forget how intricate this arms race is. A bacterium that affects bees, can reduce the pollination of certain plants that are the preferred food of some antelope that is the main food source of a lion. So that arms race between the bacterium and the bee … has consequences in the arms race between the antelope and the lion.
And certain species (like humans) gain advantage in this arms race through *cooperation*. Humans are pathetically weak creatures as individuals, but *formidable* in groups.
The key development in the evolution of humans that brought us to where we are, is *language*.
That is what caused our brains to grow to freakish levels. That is what allowed us to pass on advantages and discoveries in ways that genetics alone cannot do. Your parents can show my kids how to make a spear. And with the discovery of written language, your great-grandparents can teach my great-grandchildren how to make penicillin … or a rifle.
So yes, that ability can seem to throw the entire arms race out of balance. We can eradicate polio … literally make another species *extinct* because it is harmful to us.
The problem is first, the unknown consequences. Eradicating some pathogen in humans, might produce an opportunity for a new pathogen in, say, bees, which affects pollination of some plant, which has cascading effects to certain types of crops, etc. Such consequences can take *decades* to appear, and by then may be too late to correct … if we are able to diagnose the cause at all.
But the second problem is not so much with the things we are *deliberately* doing (like trying to eradicate diseases, which we have no choice but to do, because as humans it is our instinct to help each other). Instead it is with things we are doing *accidentally* because we cannot see the consequences, or assume that we can always deal with them later if they get serious.
The current discussion of global warming is a great example. Even if you reject the scientific consensus that we are starting to see the effect of human-caused global climate change … is it reasonable to just assume that this will NEVER be a problem? The carbon deposits are called “fossil fuels” because the are the result of billions of years of life forms that turn CO2 in the atmosphere into solid Carbon in our bodies, that then gets left in solid form in the ground. Humans come along and figure out how to derive energy by burning that solid Carbon, which turns it back into atmospheric CO2. This is a complete reversal of a 1-3 billion-year trend … in the course of 200 years! Do we really think this will have no effect?
Now, in the long run, humans may cause the extinction of millions of species, including our own. But the earth will barely blink an eye. Even a nuclear holocaust would leave the bacteria irradiated but probably surviving fine. Archaebacteria, and deep-sea organisms would probably survive just fine (perhaps even vertebrates, like fish). Plants would grow back. Arthropods would follow, replacing insects with some new type of creature. The surviving vertebrates would eventually re-emerge on land, giving rise to a whole new “reboot” of terrestrial evolution. 100 million years later, business would be booming again on land, and humans won’t even be a memory.
I hope that doesn’t happen … but then I won’t be around to care.