The Story of Evolution and the Evolution of Stories: EvoLit

Someone posted a little earlier about how strange it was shifting back to thinking about biological evolution and actual natural selection after so much time  thinking about it being applied to other things like literature and, well, everything.  But, honestly, there's nothing for reaffirming one's belief in the power and beauty of evolution than in thinking about what changes it has affected in the natural world.  Recent studies done of Bonobo apes, some of the closest relatives to humans besides maybe chimpanzees, has shown that they are capable of many thinks we consider distinctly human.  Language jumps clearly to mind.  Other species have language, birds sing, whales communicate with each other, and all sorts of animals use sounds as a method for hunting, c

 For my final presentation last Thursday, I showed an interview clip with a Haverford College Chemistry major. My thoughts before conducting this interview was to compare how I view evolution now and how someone outside the class would. I asked him five questions which were questions we had pondered and discussed aloud in class.

Questions Asked

1. What are the first 3 words that come into mind when u think of evolution?

To begin with I was both certain and uncertain of what I wanted to do for my final presentation. I had decided right off that I didn't want to just do a basic presentation, figuring that the class (and myself) would appreciate something more interesting, and almost immediately, my mind was cast back (though I don't know why...) to an eleventh grade english class that had made quite an impact on me. We had been reading The Handmaid's Tale, a novel that was known for its strange uncertainty of chronology, and my teacher had handed my class a bunch of excerpts from the book and asked us to put them in the right order.

 From American West as Classroom, Art, and Metaphor (NY Times 4 May 2011)  

 As I go through exam week I can't help returning to the idea of purpose and its importance.  I remember in one of our discussions we talked about whether we needed things in life to have a purpose.  My original thought was that I only need purpose for certain things.  I used the example of running.  I hate to run, but I'm an athlete so I don't really have a choice.  I explained that when I have a reason for running, for instance in a game, or to prepare for a season, I can get through a long run, whereas if it's just running to run I can't force myself to do it.  Versus just hanging out somewhere or sitting outside, which I don't need a specific purpose for doing.  I'm starting to think now though, that maybe purpose is kind of like agency.

  In our final presentation we attempted to create a game that blended the concept of natural selection with the “natural selection” of literature or memetic phrases, movies, or music. We used spoons, forks, knives, cups, and coffee beans to conduct this activity. We dumped coffee beans onto the floor, and after we had given either a fork, spoon, or knife to each individual, we asked them to collect the coffee beans and put them into the cup. We expected that the spoons would be able to collect the most beans the most efficiently, then the forks, and lastly the knives.

As we have discussed over the course of the semester, the line between science and literature is now blurred.  Or at least is partially blurred.  As we spoke in our closing classes about our final reflections and what we had learned over the course of the semester I thought a lot about all of those lines separating the 2 disciplines.  I finally came to the conclusion that some of the lines are blurred, but there are still some very concrete borders.  I think in the broader arena, the purpose of this class isn't necessarily what I've learned specifically about evolution, but rather the importance of thinking in different ways.

 In preparing to finish up my portfolio for this class I was looking back through some of my most recent notes and noticed, amongst my  notes about "vacilando" a small bullet point. Paul told us that "uncertainty is neutral" and that it favors no one. I learned in this class that the answer to all of Paul's questions is "randomness," so applying that here it, an outcome as dictated by the laws of randomness is just as likely to turn out favorable as unfavorable. While we as humans have no say in which outcome it is, if you believe in either agency or fate, there is only one way out of the two that it can turn out. This reminded me of a strip from Calvin & Hobbes that I can remember reading as a child and totally agreeing with.