Life
Chapter 1 - Worldview
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Welcome to the Life page (the fourth building block)
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The existence of life on Earth is fascinating and is made possible by a unique set of circumstances. Our planet is located in what scientists call the “Goldilocks Zone,” where it is neither too hot nor too cold, allowing liquid water to exist. Water is essential because it acts as a solvent and enables the complex biochemical reactions that form the basis of life.
Earth’s atmosphere, rich in nitrogen and oxygen, protects us from harmful solar radiation while maintaining a temperature range conducive to life. Earth’s magnetic field protects us from solar winds and preserves our atmosphere for billions of years.
In addition, Earth’s geological activity plays a crucial role. Plate tectonics recycle nutrients and help regulate the climate by controlling carbon dioxide levels. The presence of diverse ecosystems, from oceans to forests, creates a stable environment in which different life forms can evolve. This biodiversity provides resilience and adaptability, allowing species to survive in changing conditions. In addition, the moon’s gravity stabilizes Earth’s axial tilt, creating consistent seasons that support agriculture and ecosystems.
The discovery of microbial life in extreme environments, such as the deep sea and dry deserts, has expanded our knowledge of where life can thrive. Life, once it begins, is incredibly resilient. Earth’s unique combination of chemical, geological, and environmental factors has made our planet a cradle for life.
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Core idea
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Life is a balancing act
We can write many books about life, but the intention here differs. We discuss some crucial elements: evolution, the individual, the community, and the stories that support the community.
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Life is a constant balancing act, teetering between,
- stability (in extreme form a rock-steady relationship)
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- unpredictability (in extreme form a relationship-less chaos).
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Life extracts its required energy,
- from 'solid objects' (e.g. a potato)
- through a process (e.g. digestion) in which sugars (the useful energy) are released and used by the body,
- and the remainder remains as unuseful entropy.
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Deep dive
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Key take-aways from the deep dive
- I - We can safely say that humans have not changed much genetically since the sedentary farming community emerged
- We - Participation refers to the activities by which people's interests, values, needs and concerns are incorporated into decisions and actions on public matters
- Context - SES (Social Economic Status) is most important
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Short summary of human evolution
Taxonomically, humans belong to the primates, a genus from the superfamily of great apes (Hominoidea), including gibbons, orangutans, gorillas and chimpanzees. Man is the only living species from the genus Homo, although there have been calls for humans to be placed in the same genus as the two species of chimpanzees (Chimpanzee + Bonobo).
- About 3.5 billion years ago the first simple single-celled organisms lived in water.
- Between 1 billion and 450 million years ago, plants and insects colonized the land
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- The first primates appeared 65 million years ago
- The first hominid appeared 6 million years ago
- 2.9 million years ago, Homo rudolfensis appeared
- 2.4 million years ago, Homo habilis appeared
- 1.8 million years ago, Homo erectus spread as the first human species spread across other continents
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- 250.000 years ago, Homo sapiens (modern humans) appeared (7.500 to 10.000 generations back)
- 70.000 years ago, during volcanic eruptions in Sumatra, the then-existing human species are largely extinct, only in the south of Africa, about 12.000 modern humans survived (about 2.100 to 2.800 generations back)
- 40.000 years ago, modern man came to Europe as Cro-Magnon man (about 1.200 to 1.600 generations back)
- 10.000 years ago, agriculture was invented (about 300 to 400 generations back)
- 5.000 years ago, the use of writing appeared (about 150 to 200 generations back)
We can safely say that humans have not changed much genetically in the last 400 to 500 generations. In concrete terms, this means that if we could bring a baby born 12.000 to 15.000 years back to our time, they would grow up as perfectly normal human beings in our society.
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I
Genetics
Every biological individual carries genes. Genes contain the information that builds every biological being. Each gene is a unit of hereditary information and occupies a fixed position (locus) on a chromosome. The human genome (the entire set of chromosomes) contains an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 genes.
Genes can be described as duplicators. They make copies of themselves. When an organism reproduces, its genes implant copies of themselves into the new organism. The critical role reserved for organisms by genes is the transfer of (duplicated) genes to the next generation.
Evolutionary competition occurs not so much between organisms as between the genes themselves. Genes compete to get as many copies of themselves into the next generation as possible. Genes that provide characteristics that "promote the organism's survival and organise better transfer within a given context" will be more abundant in the next generation. Genes control organisms for their own survival. Therefore they determine the physical and mental properties and the behaviour.
A gene-centric perspective is the only correct one, nicely stated by Robert Sapolsky in his book 'Behave' (2017):
| The chicken is the strategy of the egg to create more eggs. |
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We
The voice of community
Have you ever stood among a singing audience at a concert? Curiously enough, this always sounds like one voice, even though one sings at different pitches and sings better or less well. Together, we exhibit the same characteristics as individuals. Robert Aumann (2005 Nobel Prize in Economics - “for having enhanced our understanding of conflict and cooperation through game-theory analysis”) has developed this further.
| Participation refers to the activities by which people's interests, values, needs and concerns are incorporated into decisions and actions on public matters. (1) |
| Through evolution, the human brain has developed to adjust to complex social group living (Dunbar, 2011). Neuroimaging studies have shown that our neural correlates respond differently to in-group and out-group members (Eberhardt, 2005; Amodio,2008; Ito and Bartholow, 2009; Chiao and Mathur, 2010; Kubotaet al., 2012; Eres and Molenberghs, 2013). Understanding how these neural correlates are influenced by group membership is important for a better understanding of how complex social problems such as racism and in-group bias develop. Race is just oneof many dimensions that people can use to categorize themselves.
Gender, age, profession, ethnicity, status, country of birth, sportsteam, social group and education are just a few examples that we use to categorize people as belonging either to the in-group or out-group. Research has shown that people categorize themselves and others even based on trivial criteria (Tajfel et al., 1971) and this categorization can be very fluid and is often context dependent (Turner et al., 1994). (2) |
| Content sourse | |
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| (1) | T. Nabatchi, M Leighninger - 2015 |
| (2) | Pascal Molenberghs - The neuroscience of in-group bias - Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews - 2013 |
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Survival of the richest and the most powerful
With the advent of our cultural society, the statement 'the survival of the fittest' has taken on a completely different meaning. Previously, it was about an 'accidental and blind' adaptation to a changing context. Now, it is also about an intentional adjustment to a context that can be adjusted intentionally by who is capable.
Life expectancy was generally shorter than today in ancient times and the Middle Ages due to several factors, such as poor hygiene, lack of healthcare access and knowledge about healthy eating. Despite these challenges, some people in ancient times and the Middle Ages lived to a relatively old age. These people were often wealthy and had access to better nutrition, better health care and better living conditions.
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A Harvard analysis of 1.4 billion Internal Revenue Service records on income and life expectancy that showed staggering differences in life expectancy between the richest and poorest. The only thing it seems to be correlated with is how educated and rich the area is. While researchers have long known that life expectancy increases with income, the researchers were surprised to find that trend never plateaued.
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| Harvard Gazette - For life expectancy, money matters - 2016 |
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A Swedish study compared the wealth of people in adulthood (on average at age 44) and that of their biological and adoptive parents. Researchers found that environmental factors influence prosperity more than biological factors: the prosperity of adopted children during adulthood is more influenced by the wealth of the adoptive parents than that of the biological parents. Growing up in an environment of wealth seems to have certain advantages, which largely determine whether children become more successful and richer later in life.
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| Lundborg & Majlesi - Statistic Sweden |
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Gregory Clark, an economist at the University of California, has extensively researched social mobility and the influence of family ties. He states that social status is primarily determined by heredity. Moreover, he notes that social mobility is very rare: more than half of one's social status can be predicted based on the social position of one's ancestors.
| Content source |
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| Gregory Clark - ‘The Son Also Rises’ |
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In summary, wealth, status, power, etc., makes us live longer, possibly resulting in more offspring. This is a human logical reason to strive for (tangible ) WEALTH and (intangible) STATUS.
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