[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp_daXRkOH0]
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April 14th, 2007 at 12:20 am
Terrific piece of work Lori. It is not just Kurt’s clear intelligence that came shining through in that video, yours did too. Damn I am jealous of your clarity. For what you have contributed, Thank You.
I felt a real connection to the “bad animal” idea. The human population has exploded, I doubt there has ever before been anywhere close to 5 billion individuals of any species that massed over an average 100 lbs on this planet. I wonder sometimes, what has been happening to the total amount of life on this planet under human dominion? With a large animal like humans becoming extraordinarily numerous, it can be no surprise that other large animals have experienced declines and extinctions (I doubt we have affected the aggregate population of very small organisms). We have competed with all large organisms for resources.
But all organisms compete to the best of their ability. That is what evolution does–it creates species that can survive to reproduce (BTW…). Your piece made me think–evolution doesn’t have a goal. I say this in the sense that it is very big picture, but there is an even bigger picture. It has been obvious that evolution doesn’t work toward the survival of the individual necessarily (think ants that do everything for the queen, or the top male lion that kills all offspring not his), but neither does it (except perhaps on the very long time scale) work toward the survival of many species. Diversity is supported by evolution, but it is the species that evolution optimizes for. This is how evolution can allow for a “bad species”.