Evolution: Difference between revisions
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== | ==Concept Map== | ||
=== Key Terms === | |||
= | [[Evolutionary Theory]] > {{#ask:[[Is a key term::Evolutionary Theory]]|format=ul}} | ||
===Related LP Terms=== | |||
[[Evolution]] > {{#ask:[[Is a related LP term::Evolution]]|format=ul}} | |||
[[Evolution]] > {{#ask:[[Is a related | ===Non-LP Related Terms=== | ||
[[Evolution]] > {{#ask:[[Is a related term::Evolution]]|format=ul}} | |||
==Notes== | ==Notes== | ||
<ref>Robert N. Bellah, ''Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age.'' (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts).</ref> | |||
Evolution is driven externally by environmental experiences. | Evolution is driven externally by environmental experiences. | ||
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In the early stages of evolution, [[Consciousness]] may impact the process. However, because of the absence of [[Sapient Life]], early-stage evolution is primarily [[Natural Evolution]]. | In the early stages of evolution, [[Consciousness]] may impact the process. However, because of the absence of [[Sapient Life]], early-stage evolution is primarily [[Natural Evolution]]. | ||
At a certain point in a planet's evolutionary, [[Sapient Life]] evolves. When sapient lifeforms evolve, these typically take control of the environment. At that point, it becomes possible to create environments and direct evolution. As a species gains expertise and control, [[Natural Evolution]] gives way to [[Social Evolution]]. Over time, the significance of natural evolution declines while social evolution | At a certain point in a planet's evolutionary, [[Sapient Life]] evolves. When sapient lifeforms evolve, these typically take control of the environment. At that point, it becomes possible to create environments and direct evolution. As a species gains expertise and control, [[Natural Evolution]] gives way to [[Social Evolution]]. Over time, the significance of natural evolution declines while social evolution (formally known as Niche Construction) 1becomes the primary evolutionary driver. | ||
=== Niche Construction === | |||
Organisms adapt to their environments through natural selection, but organisms also '''actively modify their environments''', and those modifications feed back to alter the selection pressures acting on themselves and other species. This organism-driven environmental modification is ''niche construction''.<blockquote>If natural selection is blind, but niche construction is semantically informed and goal-directed, then evolution must comprise an entirely purposeless process, namely, natural selection, selecting for purposive organisms, namely, niche-constructing organisms. This must be true at least insofar as the niche-constructing organisms that are selected by natural selection function so as to survive and reproduce.<ref>F. John Odling-Smee et al., ''Niche Construction: The Neglected Process in Evolution'', vol. 37, Monographs in Population Biology (Princeton University Press, 2003). p. 186.</ref></blockquote> | |||
==== Key points: ==== | |||
* '''A second process in evolution.''' Natural selection lets environments shape organisms; niche construction lets organisms shape environments. Adaptation can't be fully understood as a one-way fit of organism to a pre-given environment, because the environment itself is partly a product of the organisms living in it. | |||
* '''Everyday examples at every scale.''' Earthworms change soil structure and chemistry, beavers build dams, birds build nests, plants alter local light and nutrient conditions. Human niche construction — agriculture, cities, technology, cultural practices — is the most powerful of all. | |||
* '''Ecological inheritance.''' Niche construction's evolutionary significance comes partly from ''inheritance'': offspring don't just inherit genes, they inherit modified environments (altered soils, nests, dams, cultural settings). Selection pressures can thus persist across generations through an environmental channel, independent of genetic transmission. | |||
* '''Feedback changes evolution.''' When organisms modify selection pressures, traits can evolve as responses to ''self-induced'' selection (e.g., dairy farming creating selection for adult lactose tolerance in humans). Niche construction can change evolutionary rates, directions, and equilibria. The classic example here is how the domestication of cattle modified a natural selection pressure that favoured lactase tolerance.<ref>F. John Odling-Smee et al., ''Niche Construction: The Neglected Process in Evolution'', vol. 37, Monographs in Population Biology (Princeton University Press, 2003). p. 186.</ref> | |||
See also the '''Extended Evolutionary Synthesis.''' | |||
==Quotes== | |||
Evolutionism as religion: " Even when evolution is declared meaningless, as when Dawkins writes, “The universe we ob- | |||
serve has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind pitiless indifference,” that is a kind of religious position: the ultimate meaning of life is that | |||
there is no meaning."<ref>Dawkins quoted in Robert N. Bellah, ''Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age.'' (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts).</ref> | |||
{{endstuff}} | {{endstuff}} | ||
[[category:terms]] | [[category:terms]] | ||
[[category:lightningpath]] | [[category:lightningpath]] | ||
[[Is a key term::Evolutionary Theory| ]] | |||
[[Is a syncretic term::The Great Work| ]] | [[Is a syncretic term::The Great Work| ]] | ||
[[Is a related LP term::Über-Crises| ]] | [[Is a related LP term::Über-Crises| ]] | ||
Latest revision as of 04:47, 5 November 2026
Evolution
Evolution is the Consciousness driven process of developing life systems capable of containing high levels of Consciousness. Evolution proceeds in seven Evolutionary Stages.
Concept Map
Key Terms
Related LP Terms
Non-LP Related Terms
Notes
[1] Evolution is driven externally by environmental experiences.
Evolution is directed internally by Consciousness.
The teleological goal of evolution is the development of Physical Units capable of high CQ, and the development of a Pinnacle Species.
Graduation occurs upon completion of that goal.
A planet's evolution occurs in several stages
In the early stages, evolution occurs primarily as a process of environmentally driven mutation, survival-based selection of traits, and epigenetic adaptations.
In the early stages of evolution, Consciousness may impact the process. However, because of the absence of Sapient Life, early-stage evolution is primarily Natural Evolution.
At a certain point in a planet's evolutionary, Sapient Life evolves. When sapient lifeforms evolve, these typically take control of the environment. At that point, it becomes possible to create environments and direct evolution. As a species gains expertise and control, Natural Evolution gives way to Social Evolution. Over time, the significance of natural evolution declines while social evolution (formally known as Niche Construction) 1becomes the primary evolutionary driver.
Niche Construction
Organisms adapt to their environments through natural selection, but organisms also actively modify their environments, and those modifications feed back to alter the selection pressures acting on themselves and other species. This organism-driven environmental modification is niche construction.
If natural selection is blind, but niche construction is semantically informed and goal-directed, then evolution must comprise an entirely purposeless process, namely, natural selection, selecting for purposive organisms, namely, niche-constructing organisms. This must be true at least insofar as the niche-constructing organisms that are selected by natural selection function so as to survive and reproduce.[2]
Key points:
- A second process in evolution. Natural selection lets environments shape organisms; niche construction lets organisms shape environments. Adaptation can't be fully understood as a one-way fit of organism to a pre-given environment, because the environment itself is partly a product of the organisms living in it.
- Everyday examples at every scale. Earthworms change soil structure and chemistry, beavers build dams, birds build nests, plants alter local light and nutrient conditions. Human niche construction — agriculture, cities, technology, cultural practices — is the most powerful of all.
- Ecological inheritance. Niche construction's evolutionary significance comes partly from inheritance: offspring don't just inherit genes, they inherit modified environments (altered soils, nests, dams, cultural settings). Selection pressures can thus persist across generations through an environmental channel, independent of genetic transmission.
- Feedback changes evolution. When organisms modify selection pressures, traits can evolve as responses to self-induced selection (e.g., dairy farming creating selection for adult lactose tolerance in humans). Niche construction can change evolutionary rates, directions, and equilibria. The classic example here is how the domestication of cattle modified a natural selection pressure that favoured lactase tolerance.[3]
See also the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis.
Quotes
Evolutionism as religion: " Even when evolution is declared meaningless, as when Dawkins writes, “The universe we ob- serve has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind pitiless indifference,” that is a kind of religious position: the ultimate meaning of life is that there is no meaning."[4]
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Footnotes
- ↑ Robert N. Bellah, Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age. (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts).
- ↑ F. John Odling-Smee et al., Niche Construction: The Neglected Process in Evolution, vol. 37, Monographs in Population Biology (Princeton University Press, 2003). p. 186.
- ↑ F. John Odling-Smee et al., Niche Construction: The Neglected Process in Evolution, vol. 37, Monographs in Population Biology (Princeton University Press, 2003). p. 186.
- ↑ Dawkins quoted in Robert N. Bellah, Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age. (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts).