Remember Darwin’s finches. Different beaks, different habitats, different ecological niches. Definitely different diets. The adaptive radiation of some finch species might be in the process of reversing; a future Darwin might find one ground finch where there were four. It seems that different species of Darwin’s finches have become addicted to human junk food in urban areas of the Galapagos.* There’s a potential blending going on as the finches eat a common diet. If you recall, it was their adaptation to different foods that separated the species Darwin studied.
And what about us? Yes, unlike the finches, we’re a common species worldwide. But we do have some physical differences based on diet, and definitely have cultural differences based on geographic separation and historical social influences. Now, our interconnectedness through the WWW has the potential to erase differences. We might be headed toward a world society that science fiction writers have long described, a society of mono- or near-mono-thinking. Just as our thousands of years of intermixing led to an extensive blending outside our African roots, so now our WWW-mixing might make us less adaptive and more convergent.
Junk human food is changing the finches physically. Junk WWW is changing humans culturally and philosophically.
*De León, L.F., Sharpe D.M.T., Gotanda K., Raeymaekers J.A.M., Chaves J., Hendry A.P., and Podos J. 2018. Urbanization erodes niche segregation in Darwin's finches. Evolutionary Applications. https://doi.org/10.1111/eva.12721. Accessed December 3, 2018.
And what about us? Yes, unlike the finches, we’re a common species worldwide. But we do have some physical differences based on diet, and definitely have cultural differences based on geographic separation and historical social influences. Now, our interconnectedness through the WWW has the potential to erase differences. We might be headed toward a world society that science fiction writers have long described, a society of mono- or near-mono-thinking. Just as our thousands of years of intermixing led to an extensive blending outside our African roots, so now our WWW-mixing might make us less adaptive and more convergent.
Junk human food is changing the finches physically. Junk WWW is changing humans culturally and philosophically.
*De León, L.F., Sharpe D.M.T., Gotanda K., Raeymaekers J.A.M., Chaves J., Hendry A.P., and Podos J. 2018. Urbanization erodes niche segregation in Darwin's finches. Evolutionary Applications. https://doi.org/10.1111/eva.12721. Accessed December 3, 2018.
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