February 12, 2011
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Happy Darwin Day!!
Take a look. (Click photo and zoom in for best results.) This is life. On the giant wheel of living things, we respresent one tiny ordinary spoke. Then realize that this wheel represents the square root of the estimated number of species on Earth - that is, of the 9 million species estimated to exist, you are looking at 3,000, or less than one-fifth of one percent. For millennia, humans were thought to be the pinnacle of creation, to rule and dominate over all other organisms, but how can that be? We are so vastly outnumbered in ecosystems packed to the gills with organisms unaware and indifferent to our existence. We are entirely dependent on them, but they would still fourish without us - most of them have for millions or hundreds of millions of years. And we are new - remember that diagram that placed the history of Earth on the timescale of a calendar year and showed humans arriving after 11:59pm on December 31? To them, we are simply the dominant species of the day. And yet we do dominate, but in a very unique way - with our brains. We have consciousness, an acute awareness of our existence, where we have been, where we are going. We are specially equipped and advanced to explore and experience as much of our universe as possible all as a means to secure an equal or improved life for our offspring. In other words, we have new and extraordinary means to perform an ancient and ordinary task, a task we share with nine million fellow survivors and relatives. Today we recognize the birth of a man who produced possibly the most important idea of all time. Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection continues to send shockwaves around the world and forces humankind to reconsider its place among life.
"A living creature is always in the business of surviving in its own environment. It is never unfinished - or in another sense, it is always unfinished. So, presumably, are we."
- Richard Dawkins - The Ancestor's Tale
