I had hoped to submit chapter 4 of the Quantum Biology sequence this morning. Nevertheless, for all types of fine causes, we now have determined to refine it earlier than doing so, primarily as a result of we see it as fairly elementary to our financial arguments. So I provide a Quantum Essay as a substitute, or no less than one associated to the Quantum sequence. It so occurs it hyperlinks pretty nicely with one other submit this morning. 

Like others within the Quantum Essay sequence, this one arose from discussions between my spouse, Jacqueline, and me.

Different essays on this sequence are famous on the finish of this submit. 

What if Darwin was unsuitable? The case for the survival of the wisest

Darwin’s idea of evolution is likely one of the most influential concepts in human historical past. However what if the story we now have advised about it’s unsuitable, or, extra exactly, incomplete?

The favored interpretation of Darwin’s work means that the world is pushed by the survival of the fittest. But what whether it is actually pushed by the survival of the wisest, who’re those that cooperate and never compete to adapt and endure?

For generations, the metaphor of the wrestle for existence has been misused to justify greed, inequality, and ruthless competitors. It has been embedded in economics as a lot as in biology. Markets, we’re advised, reward the robust, the intelligent, and the environment friendly. That assumption grew to become the ideological spine of neoliberalism. However biology, and more and more, fashionable genetics, tells us that this story is just not true.

Cooperation, not competitors

Current analysis into epigenetics* reveals that what we inherit from our dad and mom is just not a hard and fast genetic future however a versatile system formed by atmosphere, stress, food plan, and social context. The genome gives potential, however it undoubtedly doesn’t prescribe outcomes. In that sense, it mirrors society itself. We’re every born into methods, whether or not financial, political, or cultural, that affect what we turn into, however these methods can change if we act collectively to alter them.

Cooperation, due to this fact, is just not a sentimental various to competitors. It’s the mechanism by which each life and society adapt. Essentially the most profitable species and civilisations are those who share data, distribute assets, and defend each other from danger. Ant colonies, coral reefs, and even human cities rely upon exactly this dynamic stability: variety and interdependence, not dominance and exclusion.

Economics has ignored this lesson for much too lengthy. Markets that reward solely particular person achieve and punish cooperation are methods in decline. Like an organism trapped in an evolutionary lifeless finish, such methods eat their atmosphere till collapse turns into inevitable. Our present mannequin of capitalism, with its fixation on revenue, is such a system.

The economics of knowledge

If we exchange “health” with “knowledge” because the measure of survival, all the pieces modifications. Knowledge is just not about dominance. It’s about consciousness of self, of system, and of consequence. It’s, in impact, the social and mental equal of epigenetic adaptation**. A clever society learns from suggestions; it recognises that survival will depend on sustaining the circumstances that make life potential. An financial system that exhausts its individuals and its planet is just not clever. It’s, in impact, democidal*** as a result of such an financial system can solely exist with the consent of the federal government that chooses to let it function.

In that gentle, the argument for cooperative economics, whether or not from public well being to environmental stewardship, and to honest taxation, turns into not ethical however organic. The methods that endure are those who self-regulate via care and reciprocity. In evolutionary phrases, they’re alive as a result of they preserve low entropy: they maintain order inside complexity, utilizing power correctly to maintain themselves. When the drive for personal accumulation replaces collective wellbeing, entropy will increase, socially, economically, and ecologically.

This isn’t some imprecise metaphor. It’s a actual description of what we now face. Inequality, ecological collapse, and social fragmentation are all signs of a system that errors short-term energy for long-term survival. The market could reward the predator, however the ecosystem survives due to cooperation between its elements.

Rethinking future

What follows from that is clear. If genes don’t repair our destiny (and it now appears sure that they don’t), neither does our financial inheritance. The DNA of neoliberalism, expressed as its perception in competitors as advantage and greed as necessity, is just not immutable. Just like the human genome, an financial system will be reprogrammed by epigenetic alerts: our legal guidelines, establishments, and collective decisions could lead on us to desert neoliberalism and make a better option of financial structure for our state, motivated by our want for survival. On this sense, tax coverage, social welfare, schooling, and environmental safety are the epigenetic regulators of society. They decide which traits, whether or not they be greed or generosity, exploitation or empathy, are expressed.

We due to this fact face a alternative. Can we proceed to construct an financial system designed for the fittest, which finally destroys the circumstances for its personal survival? Or can we select to turn into an financial system for the wisest, grounded in cooperation and care? The science of life itself now means that solely the latter path is viable.

Darwin did not get all the pieces unsuitable, however those that interpreted him to justify competitors actually did. Evolution by no means meant a battle of all towards all. It meant adaptation to circumstance, and at this time that adaptation calls for knowledge above all else. If we’re to outlive as a species, we should do not forget that cooperation is just not weak point. It’s the very essence of life.

Notes

*  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigenetics

**  Epigenetic adaptation is the method by which a inhabitants or organism turns into higher suited to its atmosphere via heritable modifications in gene expression, moderately than modifications within the DNA sequence itself. These environmentally induced modifications, reminiscent of DNA methylation or histone modification, alter the accessibility of genes and will be handed down via cell division and throughout generations, offering a fast, non-genetic method for organisms to answer and adapt to fluctuating circumstances. 

***  Democide is a time period coined by R. J. Rummel to imply the homicide of any individuals by their authorities or state. It’s an umbrella time period that features acts like genocide (mass homicide of a particular group), politicide (homicide of political opponents), and different types of government-perpetrated killing and mass demise, even when brought on by neglect or legal omission. 

Different essays on this sequence:

1. The Quantum Economics sequence (this hyperlink opens a tab with all of them in it)
2. The Quantum Essays: Observing and Partaking
3. The Quantum Essays: Quantum MMT: The wave operate of sovereign spending
4. The Quantum Essays: Is equilibrium solely potential in demise?
5. The Quantum essays: Economics, the Massive Bang and Rachel Reeves
6. The Quantum Essays: Quantum economics, discounting, and the price of inaction
7. The Quantum Essays: Schrödinger, entropy, equilibrium, and the teachings for society
8. The Quantum Essays: The that means of life, negentropy, and the politics of staying alive
9. The Quantum Essays: Democracy as negentropy: why fascism is the politics of demise
10. The Quantum Essays: The place are the checks on entropy within the US system now?
11. The Quantum Essays: The place are the checks on entropy within the UK system now?
12. The Quantum Essays: The quantum distinction between work and hypothesis

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