On the Origin
of Species
by Means of Civilization
or the Preservation
of Favoured Races
in
the Cooperation for Life
Abstract
Natural
selection (the survival of the powerful) and civilization (the survival of the
weak) have existed since the creation of the Universe. In Earth's history the
domination of civilized species of life, caused the massive disappearance of
the uncivilized species. The process of transition from one level of
civilization to the next is the same, as
a fractal. Uncivilized species fight among themselves; some weak ones eliminate
violence among themselves, unite, civilize and create the next uncivilized
species. The same logic applies from cells to man and to non-biological life.
And this process, called self-similarity, created today’s man from cells and
galaxies from atoms. Life, death, natural selection and civilization are the
processes that were created at the time of the creation of the Universe. In
this paper life is defined as decrease of entropy, and death – as increase of
entropy. The well-known concepts and laws of biology and thermodynamics are to
be reconsidered and freed from the anthropocentric limitations for their using
in explaining the transition of humanity from nature to civilization. Natural
selection is defined as the survival of the powerful (Darwin) and civilization
- as the survival of the weak (Maritsas). And it is stressed that it was not
Man who created civilization but civilization that created Man.
Keywords: evolution, fractal, natural selection, civilization, creation,
geologic time, mass extinctions
INTRODUCTION
It was not
so long ago that instability as a fundamental characteristic of evolutionary
processes took its place in the concepts of representatives of science, the
humanities and philosophy. This was largely thanks to the work of I. Prigogine
and his colleagues at the Brussels Free University, primarily G. Nicolis, I.
Stengers and A. Babloyants (see Prigogine, I., & Stengers, 1.). The notion
of instability is now released from the negative connotations, and it has been
confirmed that instability may be a condition for a stable and dynamic
development. In my opinion, this idea is particularly important for understanding
the laws of co-existence of nature and humanity, their co-evolution, as well as
the overcoming of the opposition of animate and inanimate, biological and
social.
The
well-known concepts and laws of biology and thermodynamics can play a new
constructive role and demonstrate their universal character in explaining the
transition of humanity from nature to civilization. But to do this, it is
important to reconsider the very concept of civilization, freeing it from the
anthropocentric limitations.
CIVILIZATION IS THE SURVIVAL OF THE
WEAK
All
definitions of civilization which we have are anthropocentric and they, as a
rule, are considered as well confirmed stereotypes in different fields of
science and humanities. So we have a vicious circle: civilization => man
activities, man activities => civilization. In some previous works it have offered the non-anthropocentric definition which can help to
answer some important questions concerning the universal phenomena of human
being in the past and present: Civilization is the survival of the
weak (See Maritsas, 2007: 161 and in internet:
http://openaccesslibrary.org/images/BGS113_Constantinos_Maritsas.pdf).
My
conception is largely influenced by Darwin’s principle of natural
selection, which is to be reconsidered and rethought and its criteria and scope are to be determined according to the present-day
worldview. I
also use some present-day achievements of semiotics, phenomenology and
hermeneutics as methodological principles for the reconstruction of the human cultural
and social identity, including its gender aspect.
According
to Darwin, “struggle for life is most severe between individuals and varieties
of the same species” (Darwin, 1997: 99). Man (male) was doomed to extinction
(as other 99% of living beings) for two
reasons: first, he was an easy prey for other animals, and, second, due to
intraspecific competition for reproduction of new generations. Since his
appearance, man is the weakest and most helpless living creature on our planet,
but he has the largest brain. There are also many animals that are
“biologically weak” too. Yet none of them has created a civilization. And man has survived, creating one.
Only man himself, as is common
regarded, thanks to his brain, has abolished the coercive intraspecific
competition and consciously terminated the process of natural selection. Having
abolished the coercive struggle, man has created a society of similar organism —
human society. But man has to find a substitute for the coercive intraspecific
competition, in which male individuals have been selected by women.
These two steps on the way toward
civilization are important in a great degree: (1) replacement of the coercive
intraspecific competition with non-violent fights; and (2) replacement of the
coercive struggle for survival with a non-violent one.
One of the most important problems, posed in
this paper, is the concept of entropy. Entropy, as one of the main
thermodynamic functions and fundamental properties of the world, was first
identified by Rudolf Clausius (1865), who stressed that in an adiabatically
isolated system, entropy cannot decrease - it either increases or remains
constant. From this wording of the second law of thermodynamics there follows
the fundamental irreversibility of physical processes, as well as the
inevitable degradation of any closed system (ultimately all the different forms
of energy turn to heat, after which there can be no processes). Extending this
principle to the entire universe, Clausius formulated the hypothesis of the thermal
death of the universe.
However, the irreversibility of the processes
was in obvious contradiction with the reversible nature of mechanical motion.
Using this paradox as a starting point in his studies, Ludwig Boltzmann
eventually revealed a completely new meaning of entropy. Using statistical
methods, Boltzmann showed that entropy is directly proportional to the
logarithm of thermodynamic probability. Thus, according to Boltzmann, nature
tends to move from a less probable to a more probable state, from order - to
chaos.
As K. Lorenz wrote: "Organic
life is built like a strange lake in the
flow of diffusing energy in the Universe; it absorbs negative entropy, captures
energy and expands at its expense; this growth allows it to capture more and
more energy and the more it captures, the faster it is." (Lorenz, 2008: 17) Lorenz's words are also usable to non-organic
life, if life is defined as decrease in entropy. As a consequence of the
increase of entropy, life and death as thermodynamic processes were created at
the same time as the Universe.
The same logic applies to natural
selection and civilization. They are two processes that affect life and
coexist. We can say that natural selection (the survival of the powerful – see
Darwin, 1997) and civilization (survival of the weak – see Maritsas, 2007) have
existed since the creation of life, i.e. since the creation of the Universe. And, in my opinion, the common in certain
contexts contradictions such as nature and society, nature and culture,
biological and social, are nothing else but a form of language-game. And, as Wittgenstein
rightly observed, the linguistic reality comprises an abyss of human problems.
The life and death of someone or something are above all physical processes
that can be explained by general laws, one of which is the second law of
thermodynamics.
At the end it will turn out that
civilization haven’t been created by man, but man is the result of civilization. Also, we
will propose an answer to the mystery, why Neanderthals disappeared.
The same logic applies to
non-biological life. For this I will quote an excerpt from an interview with
Mr. Christos Touramanis, an internationally recognized experimental physicist
of elementary particles: "We know that the parent Universe contained equal
amounts of matter and antimatter. It was too early that the antimatter
disappeared entirely. If this had not happened, the Universe would be so
aggressive that there would not exist the very large intervals of stability
necessary for the formation of galaxies and subsequently for the creation of
life and human evolution. In any case, the final victory of matter in the
Universe cannot be explained by the familiar laws of physics!”[1]
Is life the opposite of entropy
increase, like civilization is the opposite of natural selection? I find the
next definition quite satisfying, no matter if it’s about living or non-living
nature (as far, of course, as this division is meaningful):
Death is Increase of entropy.
Life is Decrease of entropy (See
Schrödinger, 2001).
The above definitions make the
living – non-living nature division meaningless, because “life” has organized
the planets in solar systems, as well as the cells into organs.
A FEW WORDS ON FRACTAL
The very concept of fractal was introduced by
Benoit Mandelbrot in the seventies of the 20th century. In its most
general form a fractal is seen as a set made by parts similar to the whole. The term ‘fractal’ in mathematics, physics and many other sciences, is
used to describe a geometric figure that is repeated in an endless count of
increases, so that it is often referred to as "infinitely complex." A
fractal is presented as a "magic picture" in which no matter how many
times any part thereof is increased, it will continue to represent the same
complex whole with a partial or complete repetition of the initial. Fractals
are characterized by self-similarity in some of their structures, which appear
at different levels of magnification.
Probably,
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was the first to notice self-similarity
in nature (See Fig. 1).
Fig.1. “Transition from a trefoil to a multiple leaf plant (Drawing by Goethe)" (Lunkevich,
1947: 88).
An attempt
to explain the metamorphosis of plants, is the title of the botanical treatise written by Goethe (1790), which
refers to the idea that "Everything is a leaf": the leaf, as a main
organ which defines a plant organism, Proteus and archetypal unit behind all
the varieties and variations.
FROM CELLS
TO MAN
Fig. 2. Diagramm Time-Entropy.
Over time, the living being or phenomena
are moving away from death. At some point they will reach the minimum relative
entropy and thereafter the entropy will increase until it passes an ultimate
value, after which there occur death or disintegration. At the time of minimum
entropy, the living being or phenomena will collapse and new ones will be
formed, so the circle goes on. Any living phenomenon plunges into entropy,
reducing its own entropy (See Fig. 3).
Let's see the analytical development
of a living being, from the language to the empire, from the atoms to the
galaxies, from the cells to the man. (See Fig. 3).
Therefore, over time, a living being
are moving away from death. Language or empire, atom or galaxy, cell or man,
may not increase forever “reduced entropy”. At some point they will reach the
minimum relative entropy and thereafter the entropy will increase until it passes
an ultimate value, after which the death or disintegration come. At the time of
minimum entropy, the empire will collapse and new countries will be formed, the
language will disappear and new languages will be created, the star will
collapse and new stars will be created, so the circle goes on. The same applies
to any living phenomenon. Any living phenomenon plunges into the entropy,
reducing its own entropy. These dives
represent the evolution.
Item 1: Genesis of the living being.
Line 1–2: Life of the living being.
The entropy of the living being is
reduced, the complexity and organization become more complex.
Item 2: Birth of another living
being.
At this point the living being has
reached the lowest possible entropy. The birth of another living being is
described as follows.
Line 2–3: Ageing of the living being.
During the ageing process, the
entropy of the living being increases, which reduces its complexity and
organization. The living being is simplified.
Item 3: Death of the living being.
The living being reaches the point
of the greatest entropy (i.e. the complete disorganization) and it inevitably
disappears.
These dives represent evolution (See
Fig. 4). It can be seen that evolution
consists of consecutive “dives” into entropy and time. The same process also
occurs in space; the conquest of new lands leads to reduction of the conquerors
entropy. These “dives” can be seen as the stages of a fractal starting from the
cells and coming to Man – homo sapiens sapiens in present times.
Fig. 4. The curve “Evolution” in the field Time – Entropy.
The fractal following the evolution
from Cell to Man will be analytically described below (See Fig. 4) and this
undoubtedly important aspect I’ll stress continually at the beginning of every
item:
Cell
When Cells discovered Civilization,
the Civilized Cells conquered the Earth and created the Organs.
The first cells existed for 2.5
billion years without development.
The predominant forms of life were almost unchanged. 1.5 billion years ago,
different cells joined together in order to survive. In subsequent years the
civilized cells continued their fast-pace development, creating the first
multi-cellular bodies; a society of cells.
Organs
When Organs discovered Civilization, the Civilized Organs conquered The Earth and created Organisms.
Organs
When Organs discovered Civilization, the Civilized Organs conquered The Earth and created Organisms.
The first organs existed for
billions of years without development.
The predominant forms of life were almost unchanged. 580 million years ago
various organs joined together in order to survive. Over the next 70-80 million
years, development accelerated and the diversity of life began to resemble the
one of today. This was a union of organs, from which all benefited. In
subsequent years the civilized organs continued their fast-pace development,
creating the first multi-organic organisms; a society of bodies. (Cambrian
explosion). For example: Family: Physaliidae, Order: Siphonophora, Class: Hydrozoa, (See Fig.
5). Phylum: Cnidaria, Portuguese Man-of-War (Bluebottle - Physalia spp. -
Hydroid).
|
Physalia physalis is the only widely distributed species. P. utriculus, commonly known as the bluebottle, frequently occurs in Hawai`i, in the Pacific and Indian oceans.
The Australian Museum notes on its
luminous web page, that the portuguese man-of-war: "... is not a single
animal, but a colony of four kinds of highly modified individuals [polyps]. The
polyps are dependent on one another for survival." (See Fig. 6).
From:
http://www.aloha.com/~lifeguards/portugue.html
Organism
When Organisms discovered
Civilization, the Civilized Organisms conquered the Earth and created Higher
Animals
The first organisms existed for
millions of years without development.
The predominant forms of life were almost unchanged. 225 million years ago,
different organisms joined together in order to survive. This was a group of
organisms, from which all benefited. In subsequent years the civilized organs
continued their fast-pace development, creating the first higher animals; a
community of organisms.
(Extinction: Approximately 225
million years ago, over 90% of living species disappeared for less than 10
million years.)
Higher
Animals
When Higher Animals discovered
Civilization, the Civilized Higher Animals conquered the Earth and created the
Hominids.
Higher Animals existed for millions
of years without development. The
predominant forms of life were almost unchanged. 70 million years ago, various
higher animals joined together in order to survive. This was the unification of
higher animals, from which all benefited. Over the next 20 million years the
civilized higher animals continued their fast-pace development, creating
hominids; a society of higher animals (See Fig. 7).
Domination of Violent Organisms
|
Domination of Civilized Organisms – Create
uncivilized Higher Animal
|
Fig. 7. Evolution between Mesozoic
and Genozoic
(From: http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/search/imagedetail.php?id=350&topic_id=&keywords=)
Hominids
When hominids discovered
Civilization, the Civilized Hominids conquered the Earth and created Man.
Hominids existed for millions of
years without development. The
predominant forms of life were almost unchanged. 5 million years ago hominids
joined together in order to survive. This was a group of hominids, from which
all benefited. In subsequent years the civilized hominids continued their
fast-pace development, creating Man 2 million years ago; a society of hominids.
Man
When People discovered Civilization, the Civilized
People conquered the Earth and created Human Society.
Man existed for millions of years without development. The predominant
forms of life were almost unchanged. 2 million years ago different people
joined together in order to survive. This was a group of people, from which all
benefited. In subsequent years the civilized people continued their fast-pace
development, creating modern man 1 million years ago.
In short, civilization is an organization of
the weak organisms, as was initially stated. This organization decreases
entropy and creates the conditions for the next level of the fractal, the next
dive into entropy.
After Man has conquered the Earth it is easier
to predict the future levels of the fractal:
- White men get together
and defeat the other races.
- The rich white men get
together and defeat the poor ones.
- The good-looking rich
white men get together and defeat the ugly ones.
- …
Why? Because only the homo sapiens managed
through the civilization to went out from nature and create an artificial
world. In this artificial world homo sapiens survived until today. The Neanderthals,
although they were civilized, remained in the wild nature. And they
disappeared, like all other species; no mystery.
At the same time, the levels of the fractal
spread over territories too. They started from the sea – cells, then to the
land – animals and plants parallel to fish in the sea, and next to the air –
birds. Nowadays it is spreading to other planets – the Moon.
ORIGIN AND
EXTICTION
OF SPECIES
The domination of civilized species of life caused the
disappearance of the corresponding types of uncivilized life. In Earth's
history there has occurred the following massive creation and disappearance of
living species (See Fig. 8a, 8b):
Fig. 8a, 8b. Creation and extiction of species.
1 million years ago – Domination of
civilized people.
5 million years ago – Domination of
civilized humanoids and creation of man.
50 million years ago – Domination of
civilized higher animals and creation of hominids.
65.5 million years ago – Nuclear
winter.
More than 90% of plankton
disappeared in the oceans, which inevitably led to the collapse of the oceanic
food chain. The disappearance was connected with the huge basalt appearance of
Deccan Traps in India
70 million years ago – Domination of
civilized organisms and creation of higher animals.
201 million years ago –
Disappearance at the end of the Triassic.
The disappearance at the Triassic –
Jurassic boundary prepared the way for the evolution of dinosaurs. 80% of all
species disappeared.
251 million years ago – The biggest
mass extinction of life.
The mass extinction at Permian –
Triassic boundary 251 million years ago is called "Great Dying" as
96% of life on our planet disappeared.
Prolonged extinction in the
Devonian.
Due to the length of this crisis,
some date it 359 million years ago, others – 364 or 374 million years ago. The
disappearance at the end of the Devonian killed 60% of marine life. 80% of
species disappeared.
440 million years ago – Lack of
oxygen.
The disappearance took place at the
end of the Ordovician around 440 million years ago. 85% of species disappeared.
580 million years ago – Civilized
organs dominated and organisms were created.
1.5 billion years ago – Civilized
cells dominated and organs were created.
ORIGIN BY
CIVILIZATION AS FRACTAL
It is clear from the above that the process of
transition from one level of civilization to the next is the same. Uncivilized
animal species fight among themselves; some weak ones eliminate violence among
them, unite, civilize and create the next uncivilized animal species. Those who
have not come together give in to the superiority of the newly created ones and
disappear. The process is repeated with the newly created ones, which are
uncivilized.
And this process, called
self-similarity, created today’s man from the cells.
The Summarizing Geological
Time Table below shows the chronology of the creation of new species and the
extinction of existing ones (See Table 1).
Geologic Time - Domination of the civilized species - Mass
extinctions
Table 1
HUMAN CIVILIZATION IN SPACE
The increase of population
leads to the acquisition of new territories for the superfluous people to
reside in as they no longer fit in the existing territory. This means that the superfluous
people are called upon to fight with
other people, animals and nature. Using war to conquer new territories, superfluous
people reduce their entropy even more
adding entropy to the defeated (defeated people, animals, nature) (See the New
World, USA). Thus the entropy-time diagram is valid as an entropy-space diagram
too. In this way, with more space, the rhythm of the development of civilization
gets faster (See Fig. 9a, 9b).
 |
Fig 9a. Development in time - |
The more space there exists, the greater the development of civilization can be. Civilization developed on the continents of Eurasia, North America, South America, Africa and
Fig. 10.
Geographical path of civilization
|
From all these the path in Eurasia is the longest (1). For this reason civilization
developed most rapidly there. Paths on the other continents are much shorter,
the result being less development for civilization. The same is valid for the
vertical N(orth) – S(outh) paths 1a, 1b, 4a, etc.
The development of navigation gave
the opportunity to the inhabitants of Eurasia to continue line (1) across the
Atlantic Ocean (6) into North America (2). In
fact, path (2) is the continuation of path (1). For this reason USA
The following statements are also
true for North America and are evidence of the correctness of the thesis:
A)
War between natives and Eurasians
Natives had developed along line
(2), which is much shorter than line (1). It is logical that the natives lost
the war to the Eurasians – the people with less entropy than theirs.
B)
Civil war between northerners and southerners
The Eurasian conquerors continued
the path of civilization in North America
along line (2) for the northerners and (2a) for the southerners. As line (2) is
longer than line (2a), the northerners decreased their entropy more and
naturally won the war with the southerners who had more entropy.
CONCLUSIONS
Perhaps after reading this article, some will
accuse me of reductionism. But I would like to note that Prigogine was
absolutely right in rejecting the strict physicalism or mecanicism, the direct
reduction of the variety of social and cultural phenomena to the laws of
simplest formation of nature, but at the same time justifying the dialectically
treated reductionism. According to the latter, we must reconsider the
well-known achievements of natural science, including Darwin’s evolutionary
theory, the laws of thermodynamics, etc., in the context of a new, modern image
of the world. Furthermore, we should reconsider a number of well-known concepts
and definitions (civilization included), freeing them from the anthropocentric
layers.
My statement, that there is no fundamental difference
between human and animal, is narrow to ones of D. Morris, K. Lorenz and A.
Gelen. Man, due to
the peculiarities of his brain, was the first who moved from nature to
civilization, replacing the criteria of natural selection by civilizational
criteria. And are dolphins, bonobos and some other animals not close to it in many
forms of their behavior?
Life, death,
natural selection and civilization
are natural processes that were created at the time of the creation of the
Universe. In this paper life is
defined as decrease of entropy, and death
– as increase of entropy. Natural
selection is defined as the survival of the powerful, by struggle (Darwin)
and civilization - as the survival of
the weak, by cooperation (Maritsas). These definitions are valid for biological
and non-biological processes in nature.
It has been demonstrated that
natural selection and civilization are two processes which have existed side by
side since the creation of the Universe. The evolution of life is fractal consisting
of consecutive extinction of uncivilized species and creation of the next
civilized ones. By organizing the weak, civilization is the exact process of
entropy decrease. In order to meet the 2nd law of Thermodynamics the
new civilized species are much fewer that the extinct ones. The same applies to
the non-biological world.
REFERENCES:
1.
Darwin
Ch. (1997). On the Origin of Species by
Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the
Struggle for Life. Patra Hellas: Patra University press.
2.
Lorenz K. (2008), On Aggression. Moskow: Culturnaia revoliutsia.
3.
Lunkevich
V. (1947), From
Heraklieth to Darwin , v. 3, Sofia
4.
Maritsas
C., (2007). Civilization and natural
selection 2, Sofia: University press.
5.
Prigogine,
I., & Stengers, 1. (1984). Order out of chaos. New York: Bantum.
6.
Schrödinger E., (2001). What is life? Athens
http://www.cambridgescholars.com/hermeneutics-of-megaliths
https://independent.academia.edu/CostasMaritsas
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