Adapt Or Die

Plants Want Children Too

As far as goals are concerned, survival and reproduction are the most natural for any species. This is clearly evident in humans. We have built-in survival mechanisms that cause us to feel hungry when we need to eat and fight or flee when we feel danger. We also have a seemingly unquenchable urge to fuck which leads to many mista- I mean blessings. It’s all part of an effort to pass our genes on to the next generation. This is not unique to humans. All species, even plants, have an ultimate goal of passing their genes on to the next generation. And just as humans have certain techniques to ensure their genes will be passed on (for example: impressing girls with our big muscles and loud cars), plants develop ways to do the same.

“Like all animal species (including humans), plants must spread their offspring to areas where they can thrive and pass on their parents’ genes. Young animals disperse by walking or flying, but plants don’t have that option, so they must somehow hitchhike. Many plant species trick an animal into carrying their seeds by wrapping the seed in a tasty fruit and advertising the fruit’s ripeness by its color or smell. The hungry animal plucks and swallows the fruit, walks or flies off, and then spits out or defecates the seed somewhere far from the parent tree. Seeds can in this manner be carried for thousands of miles.” (from Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond)

In order to spread their seed the farthest, a plant would have to make their fruit as appealing as possible to any animal that walked by. Animals would choose the biggest and tastiest fruits to eat, so naturally the plants with the biggest and tastiest fruits would be the ones to pass their genes on to the next generations.

Size and tastiness are the most obvious criteria of what could make a fruit appealing to any animal. However, once humans developed the practice of farming, other criteria became important as well. One such criteria was for fruit to be fleshy and seedless.

“Wild squashes and pumpkins have little or no fruit around their seeds, but the preferences of early farmers selected for squashes and pumpkins consisting of far more flesh than seeds. Cultivated bananas were selected long ago to be all flesh and no seed, thereby inspiring modern agricultural scientists to develop seedless oranges, grapes, and watermelons as well. Seedlessness provides a good example of how human selection can completely reverse the original evolved function of a wild fruit, which in nature serves as a vehicle for dispersing seeds.” (Diamond)

Changing The Game

The introduction of human selection completely changed which traits were favorable in fruits. The fruits with many seeds that thrived in the wild were seen as undesirable by the human farmers planting them. The fruits with less seeds and less of a chance to spread in the wild were sought out and purposely planted by humans. What worked in the wild did not work on the farm. This has caused a divergence in the evolution of plants. The plants we grow on farms today look nothing like their wild ancestors (see below). It is a great example of how a change in environment can spark evolutionary change in a species.

Figure: Domesticated Plants vs. Their Wild Ancestors

“Darwin’s phrase “natural selection” refers to certain individuals of a species surviving better and reproducing more successfully than competing individuals of the same species under natural conditions. If the conditions change, different types of individuals may now survive or reproduce better and become “naturally selected,” with the result that the population undergoes evolutionary change. A classic example is the development of industrial melanism in British moths: darker moth individuals became relatively commoner than paler individuals as the environment became dirtier during the 19th century, because dark moths resting on a dark, dirty tree were more likely than contrasting pale moths to escape the attention of predators. Much as the Industrial Revolution changed the environment for moths, farming changed the environment for plants.” (Diamond)

Tanks? No Thanks!

Change is inevitable. What is not inevitable is how it affects you. You can either be a victim of change, or you can use change as a tool to make you more successful. It depends on whether you have the humility to accept that what worked in the past is no longer working. Failure to do so will cause you to be left behind.

Take the senior military officers of Great Britain during World War I as an example. For centuries before the war, horses had been utilized with great results in military operations. By the turn of the 20th century, however, new technologies were being invented which would render the horse useless in battle. One such technology was the tank. In 1912, E.L. de Mole, a civilian inventor, presented the British War Office with a design for a tank. The War Office ignored his design. De Mole was moved to resubmit his design in 1915 after the war had begun and British soldiers were dying at a rate of thousands per day due to the lack of protection which could have been provided by tanks. Despite having support from many politicians, including Winston Churchill, de Mole’s design was once again ignored by the military establishment. It was not until late 1916 that the senior officers of the British military finally decided to incorporate tanks into their strategy.

The failure to accept the new technology of tanks cost the lives of over one million soldiers and nearly cost the Allied Forces the war. In hindsight, it seems obvious that using tanks would be a smart idea. So why was it not obvious to those in charge of the British military?

It’s not that they were simply unintelligent. These men were the best and brightest the British military had to offer. While rising through the ranks they would have spent years training for, participating in, and studying combat. But while all this experience certainly has its benefits, it can also cause someone to develop a closed mind.

To illustrate, take this quote from Dr. Maxwell Maltz about breakthroughs in science:

“Any breakthrough in science is likely to come from outside the system. “Experts” are the most thoroughly familiar with the developed knowledge inside the prescribed boundaries of a given science. Any new knowledge must come from the outside.”

This explains why it was civilians like de Mole and Churchill promoting tanks. They had the advantage of being outside of the military establishment, causing them to be more open to new technologies. The senior officers of the British military were experts, but only within the prescribed boundaries of warfare where horses reigned supreme. Unfortunately for the men who served under those officers, there are no prescribed boundaries in war. The Germans, who were eager to use tanks as early as possible, inflicted massive casualties early on in the war. It is a testament to the fighting spirit of the Allied soldiers that the Germans were not able to win the war in those early years.

Stay Ready For Change

Whether you’re a piece of corn, a moth, or a commanding general, you must observe changes in your environment and be ready to adapt. While this sounds easy, it gets increasingly difficult the older you become. The strategies for success that you have used throughout your life become ingrained in your mind. You will resort to what you did in the past because it worked in the past. However, as we have seen, all it takes is one new development to render your past strategies completely useless. This is why you must keep an open mind and be willing to try new things.

While change can be difficult, it is one of the things that makes life beautiful. If everything stayed the same forever and nothing ever changed, life would be boring. Embrace change, enjoy change, and use change to your advantage.