tools of coevolution

The primary purpose of biological organisms and any underlying biological function as theorized by biologist Richard Dawkins in his book the ‘Selfish Gene’ is only to ensure continuous propagation of genetic information i.e. genes with time. Biological evolution is defined as the natural phenomenon where genetic information of organisms get updated through random changes where updated genetic informational codes which encodes more favourable biological features to survive negative externalities of the environment, ends up as the dominant genetic code in the long run. The process of evolution is however slow and undirected depending on stochastic low-probability changes that need to occur among many alternatives in the total set of possibilities, to create the ideal genetic code which can encode the optimal set of external biological features sufficiently resistant to the complex and changing external environment to ensure sustainable gene propagation with time. For primitive organisms, the burden of survival falls entirely on the slow-to-change genetic code where external biological changes needed to survive the changing external environment is required to be initiated from the internal genetic code through random low probability code variation. What is fascinating about humans as theorized by anthropologists was the serendipitous genetic variations which facilitated the external biological features of opposable thumbs which initiated the highly transformative era of tool-use. By tool usage, early human species were able to manipulate the external environment in different ways and slowly start shifting the burden of survival away from the slow-to-change genetic code. The most profound change of tool-use era happened with the eventual ability of humans to tame fire. The process of using fire to cook food significantly reduced the metabolic load of digestion leading to shrinking of organs tasked with digestion as larger organs where no longer necessary and thereby causing a reduction in the size of pelvis/abdominal region. Reducing the metabolic load from digestion freed up excess energy which got directed towards brain development leading to the enlarged brains that humans possess. Enlarged brains allowed for more cognition and the ability to process large volumes of information in real-time thereby widening the scope of possible actions with existent external biological features to enable continued survival. Increased cognition thereby shifted a large portion of the burden of survival away from slow-to-change genetic code which was the primary engine of information manipulation to ensure survival. The combination of an enlarged brain and smaller pelvic region affected the prevalent mechanism of childbirth reducing the gestation period of human offsprings to 9 months which was significantly larger during the pre-fire era. Reduction of the gestation period led to the birth of offsprings which were premature as per the biological standards of the pre-fire era due to which human offsprings required additional care post birth. The need for additional care for human offsprings post birth led to the early stages of dividing labour and specialization (which is now the engine of modern economy) to ensure survival of offsprings where males would hunt and females would take care of the offsprings. There is a strong argument that social bonding among larger groups and social structures specifically evolved as a direct consequence of taming fire as the odds of collective survival of premature human offsprings increased via social cooperation leading to humans eventually becoming biologically programmed social animals. Social cooperation eventually enabled broader scope and scale of human cognition in the form of a collective intelligence capable of creating more sophisticated tools that ensured continued survival with time again significantly reducing the need for selective genetic variation to ensure survival. The collective intelligence of humans is a reinforcing growth loop as it ensures survival and improved quality of life leading to the birth and survival of more human offsprings with time which further increases the collective intelligence of humans leading to even more sophisticated tool development thereby further increasing the odds of continued survival and improving quality of life. With each stage of tool development, we are continuously reducing the need for ordering information internally within genetic code to ensure survival and effectively outsourcing the process of ordering information to ensure survival to the external environment via tool use. A tool is essentially an ordered sequence of information in the external world that enables continued survival in the same way that genetic code is the ordered sequence of biological information within the organism that ensures continued survival. Since the tool era, humans have been undergoing a symbiotic process of coevolution with external tools better termed as technology in the present era, which has enabled a vastly superior rate of overall information change needed to ensure continued survival as compared to the glacial rate of information change prescribed by sole biological evolution. We are now in the most advanced stages of tool evolution where tools like the internet have increased scope and scale of collective human intelligence to the absolute limit and we are now able modify external environmental configuration to create the ultimate tool of new and independent external intelligence in the form of computers/AI which have ironically completed the full circle of information manipulation that began with process of slow undirected biological evolution, through enablement of genome sequencing and gene editing which now enables fast directed modification of genetic information to ensure continued survival. It is very humbling to view the sequence of human history through the lense of evolutionary biology where a random genetic variation in the grand scheme of all probabilistic variations enabled tool-usage which cascaded an era of rapid and immense change leading to the present world we live in.