I read an interesting perspective regarding the evolution of living species today. It was by Walter J. Freeman, in his book “How Brains Make Up Their Minds”. Freeman expends many words in this book on how modern systems-dynamics theory, including chaos theory, describes the operation of the brain and mind. As a side note, Freeman said that most people (other than Biblical fundamentalists) think of evolution as synonymous with “survival of the fittest”. Not so, says Freeman. Natural selection is certainly a big part of the process of species evolution. However, it is not necessarily the determinative and driving factor.

As with the mind, evolution is a complex, non-linear dynamic process that in effect takes on a life of its own. Events at the “micro level” such as animals with different characteristics fighting each other for food and mates help determine the characteristics of the species; but dynamics on the “macro level” also shape what these animals will be like and what will come of their struggles. The effects flow in two directions. Thus, change comes slowly and unevenly, and doesn’t always make immediate sense. Sometimes a species that seems more suited to thrive under changed conditions loses out to another, because of “macro factors”, such as the fact that there are more of the less advantaged species or that species bands together to support each other more than the seemingly better species.

The “system effects” of evolution are harder to see and study; it’s easier to focus on Darwin’s drawings of finch beaks than to outline complex “adaptation landscapes” and examine their “local peaks” versus the global peak. Work is now being done by scientists to study evolution in terms of chaos, complexity and mathematical emergence patterns (including strange attractors). And eventually, kids will be taught that evolution is a complicated system, like the weather, where not everything seems intuitive and long-term prediction is almost impossible. You will know that the world is advancing once the anti-evolution die-hards stop protesting the notion that their family extends to some band of hairy apes, and instead march outside schools with placards saying “my great-great-great-great granddaddy was NOT a strange attractor!”.

One more little thought about thinking. There was an interesting book called “Germs, Guns and Steel” about how seemingly minor technical developments had great impacts on the course of history. I didn’t read the book (although I saw part of the TV series about this on PBS), but one small factor that perhaps did impact progress within various civilizations was the availability of caffeinated beverages. Tea became a staple in China early on (from 2732 BC, supposedly) and perhaps helped to inspire some of the cultural brilliance and great empires of that land. Tea made it to India by 500 BC, and several great empires followed (e.g. the Mauryan Empire and the Gupta Empire).

As to coffee, the Muslim and Turkish world started importing it from Ethiopia in the 1400s, just as they defeated the Byzantine Empire and reached the peak of their geopolitical power. Coffee made it to Italy and central Europe by the 16th Century, in time to help fuel the Renaissance and Reformation. And by the 17th Century, both coffee and tea were popular in England, just as that land was becoming an industrial power and building a world empire. Where ever coffee and tea seemed to go, big things did happen (both good and bad). Perhaps civilization as we know it is partly a huge caffeine jag!