In the Age of Political Correctness and Safe Spaces, we are approaching the extinction of ideas. Let me draw an analogy. Remember the story of Noah’s ark. Two by two they went, two of each species—impossible of course to put all those critters (maybe between 5 and 50 million species) into a hand-built container. Anyway, regardless of our not knowing exactly how many species there are on the planet, regardless that some species are hermaphroditic, and regardless that some species are capable of cloning themselves, Noah would have to have saved viable populations. And two of each kind just ain’t enough critters.
To put more flesh on that analogy before I make the point about idea extinction, I’ll tell you about research published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences by four people in the know. * According Melissa H. Pespeni, et al., the potential survivability of purple sea urchins under the stresses of ocean acidification and warming is enhanced by the group’s wide geographic distribution and genetic variability. With numerous individuals, the species harbors the ability to adapt rapidly to changing environmental conditions. More individuals make for a better chance of survival; some rare segment of DNA inherited by some individuals in the group could provide protection and ensure the species’ continued existence.
So, what’s this have to do with ideas and their extinction? Every idea system—call it philosophy if you want—embeds multiple variations within itself. Founders find their students tweaking their thoughts; Neoplatonists tweaked Plato as Plato tweaked Socrates. Given enough tweaking, thoughts can become their antithesis and philosophies can even come full circle. The embedded variations are like those rare purple urchin gene segments. They ensure some survivability.
Unfortunately, today’s Noahs—ironically many of them supposed intellectuals—choose to put only a couple of selected individual thoughts on their philosophical arks, ignoring the restrictions imposed by a minimum viable population. In that biblical story, Noah doesn’t do any genetic testing for genetic robustness that equips a species with survivability. Given the same tale in a modern setting, geneticists would seek those animals whose DNA ensures variability in a world of ecological variables. Today’s analog? Just as a biblical Noah did not look for the hidden and rare genes deep in animals’ biochemistry, so many ostensible intellectuals don’t look for a variation of thought that might save philosophies from extinction. To survive a species needs to be present in a number that insures against diseases, accidents, slow ecological changes, and catastrophic events. That is, species survive when they have inherent polymorphisms that shield them from stochasticity. That principle applies to ideas, also.
As the researchers explain, urchins will probably survive changing pH and temperature conditions because their huge population contains individuals with rare genetic variants. As the present generation of safe-space seekers and political correctors will someday discover, their lack of variability will undo what they seek to protect in their philosophical arks.
* University of Vermont. "Why Noah's Ark won't work: For ocean species to survive climate change, large populations needed." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 12 June 2019. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190612084337.htm>.
Reid S. Brennan, April D. Garrett, Kaitlin E. Huber, Heidi Hargarten, Melissa H. Pespeni. Rare genetic variation and balanced polymorphisms are important for survival in global change conditions. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2019; 286 (1904): 20190943 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2019.0943
Online at https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190612084337.htm
To put more flesh on that analogy before I make the point about idea extinction, I’ll tell you about research published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences by four people in the know. * According Melissa H. Pespeni, et al., the potential survivability of purple sea urchins under the stresses of ocean acidification and warming is enhanced by the group’s wide geographic distribution and genetic variability. With numerous individuals, the species harbors the ability to adapt rapidly to changing environmental conditions. More individuals make for a better chance of survival; some rare segment of DNA inherited by some individuals in the group could provide protection and ensure the species’ continued existence.
So, what’s this have to do with ideas and their extinction? Every idea system—call it philosophy if you want—embeds multiple variations within itself. Founders find their students tweaking their thoughts; Neoplatonists tweaked Plato as Plato tweaked Socrates. Given enough tweaking, thoughts can become their antithesis and philosophies can even come full circle. The embedded variations are like those rare purple urchin gene segments. They ensure some survivability.
Unfortunately, today’s Noahs—ironically many of them supposed intellectuals—choose to put only a couple of selected individual thoughts on their philosophical arks, ignoring the restrictions imposed by a minimum viable population. In that biblical story, Noah doesn’t do any genetic testing for genetic robustness that equips a species with survivability. Given the same tale in a modern setting, geneticists would seek those animals whose DNA ensures variability in a world of ecological variables. Today’s analog? Just as a biblical Noah did not look for the hidden and rare genes deep in animals’ biochemistry, so many ostensible intellectuals don’t look for a variation of thought that might save philosophies from extinction. To survive a species needs to be present in a number that insures against diseases, accidents, slow ecological changes, and catastrophic events. That is, species survive when they have inherent polymorphisms that shield them from stochasticity. That principle applies to ideas, also.
As the researchers explain, urchins will probably survive changing pH and temperature conditions because their huge population contains individuals with rare genetic variants. As the present generation of safe-space seekers and political correctors will someday discover, their lack of variability will undo what they seek to protect in their philosophical arks.
* University of Vermont. "Why Noah's Ark won't work: For ocean species to survive climate change, large populations needed." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 12 June 2019. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190612084337.htm>.
Reid S. Brennan, April D. Garrett, Kaitlin E. Huber, Heidi Hargarten, Melissa H. Pespeni. Rare genetic variation and balanced polymorphisms are important for survival in global change conditions. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2019; 286 (1904): 20190943 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2019.0943
Online at https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190612084337.htm
RSS Feed