The most fundamental aspect related to life is death. Life, in reality, is a balance maintained by chemical forces between different molecules. There exist more conditions in an ever-changing world to challenge rather than sustain this molecular balance. Sooner or later the harmonious execution of these brilliant chemical forces is expected to go out of proportion leading to what is known as death. Evolution, on the other hand, is a natural activity responsible for all contemporary life forms thriving in diverse environmental conditions. It took 3500 to 4000 million years of evolutionary input to create a self-sustained system of unicellular organization. The most advanced products of evolution today are represented by plants and animals. Evolution not only generates possibilities for organisms to exist in diverse conditions but also increases the capacity and efficiency of living systems. Despite having colossal years of evolution, no organism on the planet earth is stable enough to claim immortality. It seems evolution has failed against the fundamental factor of death, the truth, however, is different.
Humans, the product of a million years long evolution, are on a quest to find immortality
The natural physical activity of any matter is prone to wear and tear, and life molecules are not an exception. The metabolic activities, even in perfect conditions cannot uphold life for an unlimited time. The efficiency, however, can be increased using optimum nutrients and conditions. The evolution of a complex organism requires supreme levels of synchronization with multiple metabolic pathways. The interdependency of biomolecules to create complex life forms is a delicate balance. Malfunction in one aspect of molecular activities leads to dire consequences and death. Such integration of biomolecular cascades generated life forms like humans, with intelligence and the ability to socialize. Human intelligence proved to be a catalyst for passive natural evolution and triggered an alternate reality leading to human-dominated planet earth. This allowed humans to increase their numbers exponentially, which is against the intrinsic equilibrium among different life forms in natural ecosystems. During millions of years, evolution used spontaneous genetic alterations to create discrete offspring. This authorized natural selection to sort out products of evolution. Evolution successfully managed to proliferate life with the ability to survive in arduous conditions but abrogated immortality.
Somehow evolution accepted the anti-life function as unavoidable and worked on an indirect way to live larger than life. The strategy of evolution to defy death is called reproduction. The inevitable nature of death cannot be stopped but perhaps prolonged by introducing such interventions to sustain their dominance on earth. If an organism is unable to comply with the balance of biomolecules, somebody else should carry that evolved version of its code called DNA. That is what makes reproduction the fundamental property of life. Therefore, life not only requires existence but also to hand over the reasons for its existence (genetic material) to the next generation.
The mechanism of transferring genetic information started with simpler and quicker ways reaching to its most advanced state of sexual reproduction in plants and animals. Humans unconsciously follow concealed principles accepted by evolution millions of years ago. In simple words, it is important to deliver the genetic material together with the genetic material of their selected partner to the next generation. It allows humans not only to conserve their evolved genetic codes but also to enhance the capacity by selecting an appropriate partner for sexual reproduction. The visible social factors behind the selection of sexual partners in humans have invisible biological factors set by evolution.
Every unfit is supposed to die, but humans find ways for the survival of the unfit as well.
The age of the partner, color, height, health, and physical structure are all biological signals to find the best possible genes to the couple. The macro and micro social behavior, the strategies and planning of human life concomitantly enable a human to advantageously participate in the gene transfer activity. This produces offspring who are theoretically evolved and can survive in a better way in prevailing conditions. Moreover, the recent advancements in social and technical versions of science over the last few hundred years have helped human evolution drastically and unnaturally. Humans can avoid diseases, famines and can manipulate genome to create better offspring. Every unfit is supposed to die, but humans find ways for the survival of the unfit as well. Humans managed to grow out of proportion and subdued the rest of the species either to amuse them or to increase their numbers. All resources of the planet earth are directed towards the one-point agenda of the unnatural evolution of humans towards immortality. The rate of evolution for humans is faster than the rate of evolution for the rest of the species. The planet will witness in upcoming centuries how this unnatural support of human evolution unfolds. Earth’s resources are finite; sustaining that many human lives will be soon impossible and catastrophic. We either have to live with the natural principle of coexistence with other species or find new resources outside the solar system for the survival of super-evolved humans. The unnatural technology-assisted fast track evolutionary mode is taking us towards a human-only world. I wonder, if we managed to find immortality in the future would it ever fit in the definition of life in a single species universe?
People reacted to this story.
Show comments Hide commentsThat was a nice piece to read and to be honest there is no single or straight answer to this complex question. To me, in a way, humans have admitted their incapability and inferiority. The pacing research on the development of AIs and robots is a clear indication of that.
We only create what we cannot be.
We cannot be a 24/7 worker who doesn’t need to eat, sleep or excrete. We cannot be a source of unlimited data storage or process complex problems within fractions of seconds, we cannot fly and we cannot communicate long-distance so ‘we create to fill our own voids’. And, do we think those creations are going to be manufactured by poor or middle-class people? I highly doubt that in fact, they are to replace those class workers so that the maximum of the remaining resources of this planet earth be left for 1-5% of the world’s top benches.
These patterns, in fact, my friend make me want to explore my own beliefs, the targets of our own creator and maybe it would help us understand our perception towards the very concept of immortality. The more we study humanity the more the ‘collective conscious’ theory makes sense.
Thank you and keep doing the great work
Dear Hassan I am honored with your comment,, the first argument u raised was too perfect , that going to AI means our limitations . brilliant
Yes, the phenomenon of senescence apparently seems to be a problem that our genes are unable to overcome despite millions of years of evolutionary struggle. But, on the flip side, it could very well be possible that we, as an individual, might see it as a problem, but it might have been serving a very important evolutionary purpose behind the scenes that we don’t know of right now.
yes dear Farooq
that is how it is ,, thank you very much to give it a read
will humans relay evolve into robos