The inevitability of the process of natural selection
I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection — Charles Darwin
A fundamental characteristic of biological organisms is their inherent drive to survive and reproduce. If either of these traits were absent, that particular lineage of the organism would cease to exist.
For survival, biological organisms require a source of energy. This energy is a vital resource for them. It is their Kryptonite.
In the context of plants, they harness sunlight and convert it into consumable nutrients through the process of photosynthesis. Animals, on the other hand, are part of a food chain that ultimately relies on the sustenance provided by plants. Therefore, the ultimate source of energy is sunlight, powered by the thermonuclear reactions occurring in its core.
The amount of available energy, however, is limited. There is a fixed amount of sunlight that falls on per square kilometer of Earth’s surface. The amount depends on the location and the season. Tropical latitudes have more sunlight available for consumption compared to higher latitudes. It is no wonder that the complexity of life forms is far richer in the tropics.
The limited availability of energy, coupled with the energy requirements of biological organisms for survival and reproduction, triggers a competition for energy resources. There is no central authority managing the distribution of energy to ensure equitable allocation. Each organism is on its own, employing whatever means necessary to secure as much energy as possible.
Distinct traits among organisms can aid in securing more energy. For plants, characteristics such as greater height or a larger leaf area can help capture more sunlight. Access to a larger portion of the available energy pool, akin to having a larger slice of the pie, improves the chances of survival and reproduction. Over several generations, these advantageous traits that contribute to energy acquisition begin to dominate the population, leading to the evolution of the organism into a new species.
This straightforward narrative, along with its intuitive reasoning, encapsulates the fundamental principle of natural selection. It is a process where organisms possessing traits that enhance survival and reproduction tend to produce more offspring compared to their counterparts. This leads to a gradual increase in the prevalence of these beneficial traits over successive generations.
Given two fundamental facts: (a) biological organisms need energy to survive and reproduce, and (b) the amount of available energy is finite, a competition to secure energy is inevitably established. This straightforward narrative, along with its intuitive logic, succinctly encapsulates the core principle, and inevitability, of natural selection.
The beauty and elegance of this concept lie in the fact that two fundamental truths, which could be considered as postulates, naturally lead to the formulation of natural selection as the only viable path forward. Even if alternative processes could be theoretically construed, they may not be sustainable solutions on their own and would lead to logical dead ends.
Ciao.
