One of the big evolutionary jumps toward mammals was separating a head from a butt. You aren’t built like a coral: One way in; one way out. No, you’re more wormlike. One way in and another way out. Head and butt. Brain and that other end.
Apparently, that evolutionary jump occurred more than a half billion years ago, and one of the organisms whose fossils demonstrates the head-butt structure is Hallucigenia.* It’s a creature whose front and back ends were long mixed in the minds of paleontologists until recently. What was thought to be a head was the back end. How could we make such a mistake?
Hallucigenia was also the subject to a topsy-turvy interpretation of its top and bottom. A tiny creature, it had long spikes on one side and tube-like projections on the other. Again, paleontologists long held that the spikes were legs and the tubes were something else, maybe feeders. Seems that we made a mistake there, also. The tubes were legs. How could we make such a mistake?
Having an identifiable head on a body oriented topside up is an advantage. Heads hold brains. Heads lead.
In a world of social media and the Internet, identifiable heads are difficult to pinpoint. We’re almost in a constant hallucination, remnants of thoughts everywhere and coming from every direction. Sometimes, leadership comes from behind. Sometimes, the bottom directs the top. And the same goes for news and history.
Possibly, humans have always struggled to find clear leadership. That might be the reason for turmoil as one dynasty after another has fallen. One generation of idea-diggers, paleontologists of human systems, can’t make out the heads and tails of previous generations. The previous generation doesn’t quite make sense. The new generation asks, “How could we make such a mistake?”
Note that I am not pointing to any analog of a Cambrian fossil some 540 million years old. The system itself is irrelevant. The fossilized remains of a previous generation of suspected leaders and followers will always be difficult to interpret. Every age sees the world slightly differently. Historians have a tough job because they see the previous milieu through their own culture and evolutionary jumps. They make assumptions about leaders and followers and the roles that apparent topsides and undersides play.
Hallucigenia has a lesson for us. Sometimes our interpretations are mere hallucinations. Sometimes we can’t see which end drove the events because the fossilized remains of the past are often squished and scattered. What we believe might be a force of one might be a product of an entire culture. The bottom might be the significant top, the top might be the legs, and front might be the back, and the back might be the front.
Newer research demonstrates that the structure long thought to be the “head” of Hallucigenia was not, in fact, a head, but rather just some stuff squished out of the flattened organism. Hallucigenia’s “other end” was its head, one that had eyes. It also had a bit of smile—the smile a product of our penchant to interpret all things in our own image. If the creature did smile, was it because it knew that any historical interpretation errs on the side of the interpreters’ brains? Is the truth of any history a joke on the present? Will ensuing generations interpret your life and culture upside down and back end first? If so, you might as well die smiling.
* http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=hallucigenia&FORM=IARRTH&ufn=hallucigenia&stid=54c59443-06cc-188d-3ad9-67a8a9fae252&cbn=EntityAnswer&cbi=0&FORM=IARRTH
Apparently, that evolutionary jump occurred more than a half billion years ago, and one of the organisms whose fossils demonstrates the head-butt structure is Hallucigenia.* It’s a creature whose front and back ends were long mixed in the minds of paleontologists until recently. What was thought to be a head was the back end. How could we make such a mistake?
Hallucigenia was also the subject to a topsy-turvy interpretation of its top and bottom. A tiny creature, it had long spikes on one side and tube-like projections on the other. Again, paleontologists long held that the spikes were legs and the tubes were something else, maybe feeders. Seems that we made a mistake there, also. The tubes were legs. How could we make such a mistake?
Having an identifiable head on a body oriented topside up is an advantage. Heads hold brains. Heads lead.
In a world of social media and the Internet, identifiable heads are difficult to pinpoint. We’re almost in a constant hallucination, remnants of thoughts everywhere and coming from every direction. Sometimes, leadership comes from behind. Sometimes, the bottom directs the top. And the same goes for news and history.
Possibly, humans have always struggled to find clear leadership. That might be the reason for turmoil as one dynasty after another has fallen. One generation of idea-diggers, paleontologists of human systems, can’t make out the heads and tails of previous generations. The previous generation doesn’t quite make sense. The new generation asks, “How could we make such a mistake?”
Note that I am not pointing to any analog of a Cambrian fossil some 540 million years old. The system itself is irrelevant. The fossilized remains of a previous generation of suspected leaders and followers will always be difficult to interpret. Every age sees the world slightly differently. Historians have a tough job because they see the previous milieu through their own culture and evolutionary jumps. They make assumptions about leaders and followers and the roles that apparent topsides and undersides play.
Hallucigenia has a lesson for us. Sometimes our interpretations are mere hallucinations. Sometimes we can’t see which end drove the events because the fossilized remains of the past are often squished and scattered. What we believe might be a force of one might be a product of an entire culture. The bottom might be the significant top, the top might be the legs, and front might be the back, and the back might be the front.
Newer research demonstrates that the structure long thought to be the “head” of Hallucigenia was not, in fact, a head, but rather just some stuff squished out of the flattened organism. Hallucigenia’s “other end” was its head, one that had eyes. It also had a bit of smile—the smile a product of our penchant to interpret all things in our own image. If the creature did smile, was it because it knew that any historical interpretation errs on the side of the interpreters’ brains? Is the truth of any history a joke on the present? Will ensuing generations interpret your life and culture upside down and back end first? If so, you might as well die smiling.
* http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=hallucigenia&FORM=IARRTH&ufn=hallucigenia&stid=54c59443-06cc-188d-3ad9-67a8a9fae252&cbn=EntityAnswer&cbi=0&FORM=IARRTH
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