Too Much Information
Entry by: quietmandave
26th February 2018
Some people, when asked what superpower they would like, express a desire to fly. Where does this come from? Were we once an airborne species? Is the desire to glide on thermals rooted so deeply in our genes that it has survived thousands, possibly millions, of generations?
Others, when asked the same question, express a desire to live underwater. To swim just above the seabed, extracting oxygen from the water through gills. Is the desire to be permanently bound by water so deeply seated in our genes that it too has survived thousands, possibly millions of generations.
If there exists within our genes traces of both, is our true ancestor the union between fish and bird?
Our first reaction is to say that this is impossible.
Then again, most children cannot imagine the physical act that led to their own procreation. Just the thought is too much.
Perhaps we have too much information these days. We know that we emerged from subtle evolution. We can see the bones of our ancestors in museums and archeological sites. We can trace the way these bones changed over a long period of time.
The science tells us that a union between a fish and a bird is impossible.
But in the past few months there have been scientific articles about crayfish - the marbled crayfish - that is exclusively female and can reproduce without a male. Moreover the entire species descends from a single animal from the mid-1990s. Every specimen has three copies of each chromosome. This means that each offspring is a clone of the mother.
It's a freak of nature, a random occurrence. But it shows that the unexpected can happen, in unexpected ways.
Isaac Newton postulated that everything in the universe obeyed certain laws of physics - most notably his three laws, which we learn at school. Then along came Einstein, and more recently the laws of physics have been rewritten by Chaos Theory. A single event can have profound and far reaching effects. It's the butterfly effect.
We don't see the butterfly flapping its wings, but we do see the resultant storm brewing as it approaches.
Perhaps the fish and the bird are the butterfly?
Others, when asked the same question, express a desire to live underwater. To swim just above the seabed, extracting oxygen from the water through gills. Is the desire to be permanently bound by water so deeply seated in our genes that it too has survived thousands, possibly millions of generations.
If there exists within our genes traces of both, is our true ancestor the union between fish and bird?
Our first reaction is to say that this is impossible.
Then again, most children cannot imagine the physical act that led to their own procreation. Just the thought is too much.
Perhaps we have too much information these days. We know that we emerged from subtle evolution. We can see the bones of our ancestors in museums and archeological sites. We can trace the way these bones changed over a long period of time.
The science tells us that a union between a fish and a bird is impossible.
But in the past few months there have been scientific articles about crayfish - the marbled crayfish - that is exclusively female and can reproduce without a male. Moreover the entire species descends from a single animal from the mid-1990s. Every specimen has three copies of each chromosome. This means that each offspring is a clone of the mother.
It's a freak of nature, a random occurrence. But it shows that the unexpected can happen, in unexpected ways.
Isaac Newton postulated that everything in the universe obeyed certain laws of physics - most notably his three laws, which we learn at school. Then along came Einstein, and more recently the laws of physics have been rewritten by Chaos Theory. A single event can have profound and far reaching effects. It's the butterfly effect.
We don't see the butterfly flapping its wings, but we do see the resultant storm brewing as it approaches.
Perhaps the fish and the bird are the butterfly?
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