#39 – The Problem with Natural Selection: exploring modern mechanisms for evolution

In episode 39 of the quantum consciousness series, Justin Riddle explores the mechanism behind natural selection in evolution. This is not a question about humans evolving from animals, but instead is raising the question about what is the driving force behind the process of evolution. Charles Darwin described evolution as a random expression of features that are then selected by the environment. The animals that are able to reproduce will preferentially spread their features to next generations. Gradually, species will change based on these survival pressures. The problem with this model is that the random expression of features and then reproduction is an extremely slow process. While including the expression “then add millions of years” appears to be sufficient at first glance to account for such slowness, a truly random process that is this slow will never build anything sufficiently complicated. Humans are notoriously terrible at appreciating exponentials and combinatorics: a deck of cards will likely never be shuffled into the same pattern twice even if billions of people frantically shuffled decks of cards across the planet for a million years. If the core force of evolution is “randomness,” then the probability of repeatedly creating novel stable biological structures such as the liver or the immune system is vanishingly small. Luckily, there is no reason to be stuck in 1800s ways of thinking since we live in the modern information age with advanced digital computers and quantum computers on the horizon. A simple update to natural selection is to acknowledge a domain of algorithms and “Platonic” / mathematical forms that are being carried out in evolution. The creation of a novel organ could arise through the combination of novel algorithms rather than combing “physical” parts in a random manner. However, a core hurdle of digital computer models of life is the need for a programmer. Without a programmer, digital computers are just more random physical elements unlikely to create anything. While we are just at the emergence of quantum computer technology, quantum computers might express a naturally occurring form of computation that does not require explicit programming. Quantum computation at the core of evolution would not be random and would further emphasize the importance of a single processing unit in the organism – the mind. Consciousness as a quantum computer would be critical to the evolution of the species. Your choices and thoughts are the evolution of your body and by extension the human species. Finally, the goal of evolution might not just be the furthering of your life, but if we take human knowledge to actually be real, then using your life to contribute to education, science, and medicine actually makes a difference to the human species. An expanded view of evolution includes expanding the domain of collective human knowledge, the experience of the individual, and the creation of a flourishing society.