evolution is one of the biggest ideas in the modern world it was most memorably
formulated by Charles Darwin in the nineteenth century part of the theory
focuses on the tendency of genes to mutate when a frog or microporous
giraffe has a gene mutation it usually means that they'll be unsuited to their
environment and simply die but very occasionally just by chance the mutation
gives them an advantage and makes them more successful the mutation is passed
on to their descendants who will have the same advantages their parents and
their resulting success will spread it ever further down the generations but
the key thing about gene mutation is that it takes time a lot of it took us
around three thousand nine hundred million years ago from the first cells
to Homo sapiens so the one thing we can be pretty sure about is that genetic
mutation will not be significant feature of the human world now however there's a
second equally interesting bit to Darwin's theory of evolution which
focuses on what gets called adaptation to the environment
Darwin pointed out that when the environment changes characteristic can
suddenly shift from being an advantage to a disadvantage and vice versa
in 1811 a famous survey of moths around the burgeoning town of Manchester
recorded no panic or black twink moths thirty-seven years later in 1848 another
survey discovered huge numbers of these creatures and far fewer white-winged
moths Darwins explanation was simple manchester's rise as a major industrial
city
meant that huge quantities of soot had entered the atmosphere and dark and tree
trunks
thereafter light wind mocks became highly conspicuous to their main
predators birds of the doctrine ones were effectively camouflage Darwin
concluded that changes to the environment can dramatically alter which
members of a species will thrive within it
this happens in the human world where it doesn't affect reproductive potential
but does change the social hierarchy consider for instance the classic
example of our age the rise of the nerd being short-sighted timid having poor
muscular development being obsessed with complex abstract processes and being
short on charisma and social skills used to be a recipe for an unsuccessful life
that's because for most of history making your way in the world was hugely
dependent on physical strength and strong practical links to a family group
weekly a loner in the introvert were in very disadvantageous positions then in
the last quarter of the 20th century a tech industry created an environment in
which node characteristics turned out to be highly advantageous human beings are
not themselves now evolving too slowly to matter but our environment is
changing very fast and is hugely privileged certain trades while
penalizing mothers icky dynamic of evolution adaptation to the environment
is still very much around even though GE tation may not be a notable factor some
of us are like a black massive industrial Manchester ideally suited to
the new world which rewards massive intellect self-discipline and
rationality arthur's many many of us are like white moths in a newly sooty well
we find it hard not to eat too much to distinguish real threats from baseless
anxieties to spend all day in an office in front of a computer to look at porn
in moderation to be monogamous and to defer gratification for years while we
collaborate on large projects inside the glass towers of corporations we should
feel compassion for her
when we don't quite fit our time our biology has saddled us with a range of
cognitive habits which was sensible naval power anxiety and excitement but
which really hamper our effectiveness in the modern world and understanding of
the theory of evolution should move to sympathy for why we do something deeply
counterproductive things we do when he first wrote about evolution Charles
Darwin was accused of demeaning human nature
cartoonist love to draw him as a name but Darwin has been deeply kind and
helpful to us humans he was reminding us that we carry with us a lot of baggage
which we don't now need but we can't get rid of very fast modern life is required
things of us which are really very hard for us to pull off with saddled with so
many inconvenient but maddeningly deep-rooted tendencies which is yet
another reason why we constantly needs to be a little more forgiving
other people and of ourselves