What's the Difference?

The need for a recessive gene carrier method results in an individual that seeks difference. This paper explores how such an evolutionary scenario might apply to modern society.

During the building of the Alaskan pipeline, research was done on how much could the range of the five great caribou herds be reduced without affecting the population. The real question was how many places do we have to raise the pipeline so the caribou could pass.

The answer was that the range couldn't be reduced at all (so the pipeline was elevated everywhere). The reason that the range couldn't be reduced was that the herds were already the maximum distance apart for any single caribou to migrate from one herd to the other. The single caribou in question were generally males. These males communicated the gene pool from one herd to another. If some disease or parasite devastated one herd, a male from the survivors would carry the resistance to (eventually) all of the other herds. Any reduction of the herd's territory extended the distance between herds beyond the ability of such males and result in a periodic collapse of populations.

Another example of such communication comes from a Jane Goodall study of baboons. The pack worked an area, migrating from one place to another as food supplies were depleted. When territories overlapped, the baboons had mutual ritual aggressive behavior towards baboons from another pack. The baboon's had s primitive form of culture if we define culture as learned survival behavior taught to the next generation.

Like many apes, the baboons worked a territory moving from place to place as resources were used up. Baboons are born and grow up learning to like this behavior. A normal baboon goes from place to place as an adult conforming to the rules of the pack and generally living a successful and enjoyable life. A few males however exhibit strange behavior. They leave the pack and even travel at odd times. They would meet a strange pack and be subjected to aggressive behavior. They would hang around until a female came in heat and join the line of males mating. The result is that they acted as the communication of genes between packs.

All very interesting. It is also interesting to imagine how evolution (or God or whatever) would bring about such behavior. It is standard to say that evolution is one great cosmic accident and that there is no conscious design. That is probably true but it is also useful to look at various phenomenona in nature and ask, "If I were designing that, how would I do it?" It is an interesting mental exercise.

In general, species evolve some form of behavior that leads to the overall survival of the group. Evolutionary theorists insist that evolution occurs only at the individual level, so how could their be overall group behavior e.g. herds, schools of fish, Liberals etc.  Two major ways.  First many individuals will exeprience the same evolutionary pressures and evolve in parallel.  Second, the individual succeeds and reproduces in large numbers.  If they all evolve from the same ancestors and have the same evolutinary pressures, then there will be great similarities in the group. 

In higher (intelligence) species, a lot of the behavior is learned. Behavior is learned as it is rewarded and reinforced. As a consequence the herd or pack or clan adopts a general behavior pattern and members conform to it as they receive various rewards; food, comfort, safety, love, etc. The group in general acts very much with similar behaviors. Individuals will manifest individuality but will generally conform to the group survival behaviors.

How then to create contrary behavior?

Imagine that one is rewarded for generally acting the same as everyone else. Behavior leads to reward. If there is one place in the brain which generally reward sameness, then all we need to do is to change that response by rewarding difference. It's almost as if one bit is switched in the brains of the gene pool communicators.

Everyone does the same thing except for one individual who isn't rewarded because the switch is opposite. The individual wanders off alone. Everything is new and different. The individual likes it. The individual encounters strangers who react aggressively. The individual finds that interesting! Difference and problems attract our individual. This individual now has several interesting characteristics including being an information carriers, an observer, and one who will try almost anything different. The result is that the individual will not only bring genetic information, cultural information, and any new learned behaviors from the previous group. Finally, a penchant for difference means that there will be some new survival tricks for the group. Some of the tricks may actually be poor survival strategies, but any good ones will, in the long run, be absorbed into the group.

Information is defined as the difference that makes a difference. If nature has created an individual who carries genetic information and that individual also likes difference, then nature has created an information seeker and creator, an innovator! Another way to look at it is the individual is carrying the gene pool to another group so it is an information carrier.

Humans have manifested this same characteristic. History tells us of the tension between the innovator and society. The great religious teachers, Pythagorous, Copernicus, Newton, Einstein et al all brought innovation and ideas contrary to conventional wisdom. Societies strive to control behavior. Innovators strive to behave differently.

We read of ancient societies that seemed to have great control over behavior and the question arises, who are the individuals in such societies who carry the genetic and other survival information from place to place? The answer is simple; warriors, priests, artists, entertainers, and musicians have always had mobility and an arena of freedom.

Christ introduced a singular idea that changed the world. The idea is embodied in the stated idea that the whole world is nothing if one loses ones soul. The idea is that nothing is more important than salvation achieved through individual action. Such an idea is poison to tyrants who use force to control behavior. The Roman emperors found out that the Christians were uncontrollable and eventually converted.. The major religions all contain some kind of subversive idea that creates tension with society in general. Judeo-Christian ideas (and other allied ideas) eventually lead to individualism and democracy. Democracy itself has ideas that seem to be examples of Godel's theorem. Individual freedom creates real tension with the need to organize society.

Everything in evolution is a compromise and a trade-off. Societies need mostly individuals who like things the way they are and individuals that like difference. The latter are generally a small minority. Societies don't need a lot of innovation unless there is some crisis, unless a boundary condition is reached.

Consider Western Europe. Historically it was forested until about the first millennia. At that time, a critical mass of forest had been cut and roads built between towns. Society became more organized and the need for individuals was lowered somewhat. In the town of Hamelin, society was so organized that only the first born son had any opportunity. It was a situation similar to Tibet, where the first son got everything, including the wives, and the other sons became priests. Hamelin had no opportunity and a recruiter showed up from what is now Prussia seeking colonists. One day, all of the youth left in a caravan and the story was watered down into the tale of the Pied Piper. No civic booster would admit that all of the youth left

willingly!

By the thirteenth century, there was quite a network of roads and towns and considerable trade in Europe. Grain trade, an extensive enterprise, may be regarded as a transport mechanism for rats. By the time of the plague, both ships and roads guaranteed that rats would be everywhere. The resulting plague caused a population collapse. Individuals prospered and multiplied until two centuries later they were sailing off of the end of the world and creating the Renaissance!

As new lands were discovered and/or opened up, individuals were driven from the old societies to the new lands. Criminals, heretics, troublemakers, hated minorities, adventurers, and other odd groups migrated to the one place that accepted them all, America. The US has the highest percentage of individuals who love difference. It characterizes our society. We air our differences in the open and fight over them constantly while the rest of the world looks on in amusement. What the rest of the world misses is that our differences are the source of our innovation. America is vital to the world for the innovation it arises out of our differences. The fall of the evil empire and current ease of travel may well serve to rejuvenate Western Europe that wallows in its sameness.

Consider Japan, on the other hand. It may have the minimum territory needed to have a homogenous population without severe inbreeding problems. The Japanese are all about conformity, sameness. That sameness has given them a unique ability to absorb, transmit and process information. Americans innovate and create. Japanese absorb and implement. Japan embodies the ideas of nineteenth century physics best expressed by La Place that if one had all of the data; one could compute all future events. America embodies the ideas of twentieth century physics best expressed by Werner Heisenberg in the uncertainty principle.

All of this is, of course, generalization and simplification. What is important is to carry the ideas further, esp. in both the evolutionary and the societal areas.