Evolution does not care about your well being.
It is true that organisms survive and further through speciation from the forces of evolution. Evolution is the same as saying, If you give enough time and a changing environment, it is inevitable for speciation to occur. Speciation is another term for an event where a new species is formed by the way. I am going to give you a crash course on how speciation occurs for the well sceptical audience. So we can be sure that cancer exists, right? Evolution plays the same rule on how cancer exists, random genetic mutations. Since how we are brought to this world are by the sperm of our father and the egg of our mother combined from basically two different DNAs in which the DNA becomes us so we are half our father and half our mother. These DNAs have ‘commands’ in which they know when to be activated and when to deactivate, much like a well regulated information flow. The executioners are also inside the cells. DNAs turn into mRNAs, mRNAs turn into proteins and things. The command of cell divsion from YOU as a single cell human embryo no bigger than a fucking needle to look at you, a well functioning human being. Mess one processes up where a DNA is overprocessed or something, you can end up having 6 fingers instead of 5 or you can also be mentally challenged (as in down syndrome).
The same logic applies that somehow the “new features” greatly benefit the survival of the population. The first man who ever recognizes this is Charles Darwin and I could explain in a quite simple manner how some birds can “accidentally” have bigger beaks than their parents in which this “random occurance” can make this bird eat larger peanuts. In an environment where suddenly the plants with small peanuts don’t thrive, the bird with larger beak thrives, this can be called the survival of fittest. This bird with larger beak however while having distinctive physical properties can still mate and reproduce with birds with smaller beaks and share half of his DNA to his partner in which his son will be half of his and carry the “newly” genetic disposition that gives the son larger beaks relative to other birds. While the environment remains that way for a while it will only benefit this bird family with larger beaks. The birds with smaller beaks will simply die off or migrate. This is how Charles Darwin found out from a cheeky travelling filler episode in galapagos island that he noticed that for every island it has cunning differences of the birds in different environments.
Environment changes the population into a new form of population, at least we can tell for sure for physical attributes. Physical attributes are certainty passed down.
Well how about the capability of experiencing emotions? Are emotions passed down from generation to generation? Is intellectual capability passed down from generation to generation? I would like to say sadly it doesn’t work that easily but that’s just because from observation that I’ve met and see people with cunningly smart fathers and their sons are quite an assholes with zero capability of understanding basic human emotions. Humans are somewhat different BUT we can say that evolution only cares about the fitness of survival, It may be relevant back in the past where a person who carries a gene for height and hunter eyes are more likely to mate and pass down children similar to him for his attributes than a person who has less strong physical attributes. But how relevant are those distinctive attributes in this economy?
Note that the keyword here is economy. Things have been quite different from our ancestors in the past. We are no longer concerned about “Fuck will we die today? Where are the lions? Oh I hope they are not near our cave oooh ooh aah ahh!” Money and the well refined society are quite recent in humanity’s age in the grand scheme of things.
Evolution is amazing, it can bring a species to a new species into a new species and so on. From a simple rule of “hey fuck up that nitrogen bonds RANDOMLY.” Note that from the overwhelming amount of species we have today the estimated time from the oldest fossil of life is 3.7 billion years. three to the point of 7 billion years. Note that even 0.7 billion years alone is 700 million years. And the oldest fossil that has quite resemblance to humankind in which the attributes are good enough to have a humanoid figure is Graceopithecus, 7 million years ago. The earth was quite a different landscape 3.7 billion years ago and assuming that evolution will be really apparent only in quite apparent changing landscapes, it is well justified that we aren’t able to see really apparent evolution at work in the 20th century. Fucks sake even a century is only a hundred years, that is practically fucking nothing in the grand scheme of things.
So evolution. Quite a simple rule produces a complex ecosystem or behaviours. We have made ourselves quite comfortable in our nature that we don’t need to think about if we would possibly die from getting munched by lions in our everyday life. Yet we are dying by something else. And that is something that not even the rules of evolution could foresee and that is “mental health”.
Evolution does take care of the species physical needs. That’s why camels have hunchbacks to store water and dogs have canine teeth that are more well adjusted to eat raw meat than us. Blame that on our ancestor that discovered cooking we don’t have cool fangs! The ability of compassion is also somehow an innate trait in animals. Have you ever owned a pet before? Have you ever seen them look sad? Well you don’t even own a pet to know that they are indeed capable of the emotion of grief. Take a look at hachiko, a shiba inu pet that waits for his owner even after his death for ten years. Compassion is undoubtedly necessary for the longevity of the species. Without compassion one will not be able to pursue a romantic relationship with the significant other of their own species. Why do you think birds try so hard to attract their partner by singing? Or why do dogs and wolves pack try their best to protect their family while they travel on the cold winter, always being prepared for animosity and potential presence of prey?
Have you ever seen a nature documentary where there’s a hyena tearing apart a deer pup? While the pup’s mother stands there at a distance and cries and then flees? Do you think the force of evolution cares if it does not make the hyena be as vicious and have strong teeth it will not be able to tore that deer pup apart? Did you see the news that there’s a killer whale named j35 that carries her dead calf for SEVENTEEN FUCKING DAYS just so it wont fell into the bottom of the ocean and never to be seen again. With what reason would this killer whale carry her dead calf body and if anything a burden to the mother movement other than grief? Truth to the matter of fact is that this happened and there’s recorded observation that this happened and was all over the news. Evolution is both nature’s greatest gift and nature’s greatest nightmare. What? Do you religionists really say that this whale out of her suffering will be granted eternal heaven where there are infinite amount of pups and no suffering? Do you really believe if God exists and wrote that this were to happen and does indeed happen and just see his creations loathe in grief and say “I fucking wrote this and this happened.” Truly if there really is a God like that and to play with creatures emotions and inevitable consequences of grief then it must be a psychotic one.
The answer is not to leave it to God for this one. I also hate it every time I have mental episodes some people would say to leave it to God. Don’t they know that in order to prove one religion to be right the lengths that they need to go to prove another religion is wrong? As much as there’s christian that have said that they have heard God’s voice speaking to them and there’s muslim that have said that Allah spoke to them. Religion is closer to a coping mechanism than to realising what is right and which afterlife is right. Coping mechanism is necessary for humans as thinking animals to make sense of the absurd world that they live in.
One thing for sure that evolution is as true as random genetic mutation occurs and how when you get your DNA altered, it will obviously appear to your physical attributes.
Can evolution and other forces of nature that are responsible or at least apparent in the “physical” or “neurological” manifestations of the brain help us? The underlying rule is why some people wake up and be irritated if they don’t have coffee in the morning and choose to lash out at people in the office. The same rule why I see quite the same person everyday at the smoking zone. The same rule why love feels so great. The same rules when I see something that I think is attractive my neurons get activated.
The same rules of how simple human beings can be boiled down as a series of habits and behaviours in which when that habit is unattained it will give irritation to that being. Simple rules, complex behaviours. Same rules why people get addicted to trading financial instruments and get their money blown up because their innate feelings of fight or flight overrides their rational decision making part of the brain. Losing at trading as per experts say is part of the human experience. Then what else is part of the human experience that we can be deemed as natural? Is being sad part of the natural human experience? Is more intensity of sadness part of the natural human experience as well? Then how come some people say that people that are experiencing intense periods of sadness are deemed to be defective? Isn’t that just too cruel?
How about the current landscape? Where male suicide is on the rise? Surely it is normal. I would like to think that it is a normal human experience reacting to a changing environment as well the fucking economy is on the blame and weighted and unbearing expectations of other people and the accessibility of information has been so fucking different how humans in the past used to have it. But evolution does not care about your mental well being. It gives rules on how certain things can make you feel happy and how when it’s taken away from you it will make you sad. When the good is taken away from you and the good has stopped happening it is almost BOUND that you will experience grief. Have you ever experienced the loss of a loved one before? Would you like to think that your feelings are perceived as abnormal by other people? If that is the case surely the person on the other end is a monster.
So what shall the humans do? I can only speak from my experiences and my observations. The part that I hate the most of this extreme period of sadness is actually apart from the good stops happening is also the incapability of fighting it alone. I was alienated. Fucking alienated. Even myself feels alien. I have never felt these emotions before… I never experienced such intense sadness and hate towards oneself as intense as this before. I know I’ve done wrong, I know that I shouldn’t have done the things I have done. But the deeds have materialised and there is no longer that I can do to fix it. I hate myself so much to the point that I couldn’t wake up another day not to think about ending myself. Why must I continue living if all I do by living is bringing unhappiness to other people?
Compassion and despair is just a different side of the same coin.
Without the rules being in such a manner that it is now. You will be unable to have motivation to drink water. There won’t be any dopamine to reward your behaviour. It’s as it is. Just read scientific research where people experience dopamine crash, or even just take a fucking overwhelming amount of sugar and then you will sleazy and as if you have no motivation do basic tasks that you used to do. The rules are simple even if it produces complex behaviour. Alter the intensity of the expression of those neurotransmitters, you alter the consequences of when those neurotransmitters crash or depleted. Evolution and the rules that come and dictate how you feel does not care about your well being.
But one true thing that remains true over time and how humans evolved to the point that they are at today that we are FUCKING social creatures. We fucking need other people. Fucking talk to someone. Call the suicide prevention hotline when necessary. They are called PREVENTION for a reason. Don’t wait for the very last minute when you’re at the top floor of your office before jumping to call them. They are truly the most beautiful people that I have ever accidentally exposed to. They dedicate their fucking time that they will never get back, to help you, a FUCKING stranger. Calling at 3 AM in the morning. Humanity evolves to the point at least not individually but I assure you there must be somewhere someone that is sad if you take your life away. No matter how clouded your judgements are. Don’t blame it on God or the universe. They don’t care. It’s all you. I know you never asked to be brought up to existence nor the universe and the laws care about you as a person. I know it’s a hard task. I know it’s hard to make your parents say that they are proud of you and what you’ve overcome as a person. I know that you may feel left behind and there’s no point in even trying anymore. But I just can’t help but to feel sad as a human that one has experienced great suffering with noone is there to help them.
Beauty of the world is what one makes of it. Some people can see the sunset and stare at it as long as it wears down under the horizon while some people can walk it off as if it’s nothing. Your experiences and feelings are unique and I will never be able to understand for certain what you are experiencing. I may not also be able to declare myself as the one who has the highest moral high ground but I want you to know that I believe in you. We as humans have moved forward to this point because we care about each other. We have an innate ability to care. Why do you think the world is the way it is right now? How do we have greater accessibility of foods, security, and overall well being than people in the past where they needed to travel kilometres to get clean drinking water? Why do we rigorously improve the difficulty of our education system in hope of bringing a smarter and smarter generation? As a parent, we have an innate desire to wish for the lives of our half self to have a better life than we do. As a child, we have an innate desire to make our parents happy. Depending on how you are raised the degree may vary but we can agree that these innate feelings of love are unexplainable by science, we just do love people that care about us. And why throw it all away? Why throw it all away believing that there will no longer be another peak in life? There will be another peak in life, it’s just too far on the horizon you are unable to see it from the bottom you are now. But you can try to take one small step, one really really small step towards improving oneself.
Humans somehow have an innate desire for “greatness”. The innate desire to know and understand. Subjects may vary but don’t numb the innate desire to know. It may be soul crushing to see how the modern world has become at times where you may feel that you are just another cog of a machine. If you don’t like it you can change it. Do whatever the fuck you want. Do what makes you happy. Satisfy yourself. Be proud of yourself. Fucking do it. You are destined for greatness and so do countless other people that have lived and died and helped craft the great present time that you are able to experience today and enabled you to be able to call the people you love and care about, that you care about just through two taps on a screen. We fucking sent people on the fucking moon. We sent people on the FUCKING MOON. KEEP LIVING. Go ahead, call the people that you love that you love them before they are gone forever. They most certainly are not going to be here forever.