If you have snorkeled or scuba-dived over and through a coral reef, you have seen the myriad coral polyps that look like little anemones encased in hard, calcium-carbonate homes in crowded neighborhoods of their own construction. Corals of hundreds of species combine their “exoskeletal” homes to make reefs of “colonies” that can stretch not just for miles, but, as in the instance of the Great Barrier Reef, along the entire coast of a continent. These brainless creatures, belonging to the Phylum Cnidarians (Yeah, cn), do something on the individual species level that many people find quite remarkable: They spawn at the same time. Yes, brainless creatures cooperate for the good of the species. Such spawning has been documented repeatedly.*
How coral polyps know to spawn simultaneously is largely a mystery, and maybe “knowing” is the improper process. But in human terms, these brainless critters “know.” Obviously, one might conjecture, the spawning is just a matter of biochemistry. I can accept that because in my own ignorance of how the world works, I see each spring the budding of trees and flowering of cherry, pear, and apple trees, all those branches seeming to say, “Okay, let’s do this.”
The more germane point in the midst of a pandemic is this: Brainless corals cooperate for the good of the species. The relevant question then follows: How is it that humans with brains can’t uniformly cooperate for the good of the species?
You can ask that question with respect to a society as a whole or to a social segment. Of course, you can also ask it about an individual.
Now the obvious answer is that brains aren’t relegated to simple biochemical reactions to the environment. Brains spawn meaning in every human “polyp.” Cooperation in most matters is optional. Criminal perpetrators, for example, don’t cooperate for the good of society at large in “normal” times. Some, the murderers and especially the mass murderers, harm the colony. Even under a threat like war or famine, criminal brains choose disruption over cooperation. Where some in the colony would spawn good, they spawn evil.
Evolution has given the simple coral the ability to act for the good of the colony while still remaining an individual polyp. In the realm of phyla with brains, evolution has maintained some semblance of the coral cooperation for the good of the group: Fish schooling, for example. Even more complex brains reveal both predators and prey cooperating, the former working to bring down the latter in the actions of, say, lions and wolves, and the latter working to save the group as a whole in the herding of wildebeest or in the water buffalo chasing off lions that attack one of their members. And then we get to the mystery of the big brains, those that we find in humans who, for whatever “reason,” cannot cooperate for the good of the species: The madmen who would release weapons of mass destruction on a population, for example.
Watch as the world endures a biochemical threat to humanity. Will organisms with brains cooperate? Can humans learn a simple lesson from a simple coral?
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CleWRmrpkJE
How coral polyps know to spawn simultaneously is largely a mystery, and maybe “knowing” is the improper process. But in human terms, these brainless critters “know.” Obviously, one might conjecture, the spawning is just a matter of biochemistry. I can accept that because in my own ignorance of how the world works, I see each spring the budding of trees and flowering of cherry, pear, and apple trees, all those branches seeming to say, “Okay, let’s do this.”
The more germane point in the midst of a pandemic is this: Brainless corals cooperate for the good of the species. The relevant question then follows: How is it that humans with brains can’t uniformly cooperate for the good of the species?
You can ask that question with respect to a society as a whole or to a social segment. Of course, you can also ask it about an individual.
Now the obvious answer is that brains aren’t relegated to simple biochemical reactions to the environment. Brains spawn meaning in every human “polyp.” Cooperation in most matters is optional. Criminal perpetrators, for example, don’t cooperate for the good of society at large in “normal” times. Some, the murderers and especially the mass murderers, harm the colony. Even under a threat like war or famine, criminal brains choose disruption over cooperation. Where some in the colony would spawn good, they spawn evil.
Evolution has given the simple coral the ability to act for the good of the colony while still remaining an individual polyp. In the realm of phyla with brains, evolution has maintained some semblance of the coral cooperation for the good of the group: Fish schooling, for example. Even more complex brains reveal both predators and prey cooperating, the former working to bring down the latter in the actions of, say, lions and wolves, and the latter working to save the group as a whole in the herding of wildebeest or in the water buffalo chasing off lions that attack one of their members. And then we get to the mystery of the big brains, those that we find in humans who, for whatever “reason,” cannot cooperate for the good of the species: The madmen who would release weapons of mass destruction on a population, for example.
Watch as the world endures a biochemical threat to humanity. Will organisms with brains cooperate? Can humans learn a simple lesson from a simple coral?
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CleWRmrpkJE
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