utilising evolutionary biology
You have an advantage, so why aren’t you using it?
Welcome to my casual essay on natural selection.
Thanks to my friends for getting me to write a blog essay on Darwin’s theory of evolution- but I am putting a bit of a twist on it. We can use this knowledge to our advantage…
Lets start with some quick basics of the theory of evolution.
We have different people, with different DNA, and the best DNA survives because those with ‘unfavorable’ DNA are less likely to survive. We have like, four billion years of evolution up our sleeve, with this system of optimized DNA, that as we have just seen in my last blog, are really useful.
(see bottom of page for a visual explanation)
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Here’s what Darwin (along with this other guy, Wallace) found:
Charles Darwin studied Galapagos finches (birds) and used their variation as evidence for natural selection. Their beak differences show how they adapted to different foods, proving how environments drive evolution. This example remains important for understanding how species adapt to survive in their habitats.
They found a bunch more examples like this (patterns, if you will…), tortoises, or this other guys book on how it happened in populations of humans. Then Darwin came out with his book; On the Origin of Species.
So how is this an advantage?
Well it happens for humans, too.
Basic advantages that everyone already knows of, like having ‘opposable’ thumbs so we can hold things well, having big brains for complex thinking, and walking upright instead of on four feet; all optimizing our life.
But we also have cognitive advantages that less people actually take advantage of, for example, having episodic memory, having empathy and what psychologists call theory of mind (knowing that other people feel and have thoughts), thinking symbolically (words, numbers, complex thought and concepts), decision-making, meta-cognition (ability to self monitor and have self awareness).
Knowing of these awesome psychological advantages can make things like studying a whole lot easier. It can make starting habits easier. It can probably make a really good essay too. So my final take-away for you, is to get to know how your brain works because we evolved specially to have a big brain, so use it.
Stay curious! The image below is the basics of natural selection in a tree graph. Thanks for reading.
