How Did We Get Here?

1. Biogenesis

Biogenesis is the first stage of this story. All the planets around all the billions of stars in all the billions of galaxies are organized at random with practically infinite variation, and because there are so many, the law of big numbers prevails: every possible planet that could be (given the universe and its physical laws) probably has been, is, or will be. Thus, that one or more planets should have all the right properties for biogenesis is probably a foregone conclusion, and our planet is known to be one of those rare few. Though we have none of the information we need to calculate any of the relevant statistics, this is still a reasonable conclusion because scientific research upholds all the elements of the theory—the vast size and variation of the cosmos, the law of big numbers, the suitability of Earth for natural biochemistry, the ease with which a biochemistry can arise in such conditions, and the abundance throughout space, and especially our solar system, of all the chemicals needed to get life started. Everything from amino acids to sugar, from water to sulphur, from oxygen to nitrogen and carbon dioxide, has been found in space, sometimes in great quantities. And these are the things of which life is made.

So the ground was set: we are made of the very things commonly found in the universe. And planets like earth are just the sort of places where they would most likely come together. Furthermore, experiments have proved that amino acids naturally chain into proteins, the building blocks of life, when subjected not only to many possible kinds of natural forces, but forces we know were common on the early earth, and beyond. Finally, scientists have manufactured proteins that naturally reproduce themselves without the aid of any additional enzymes, proteins so simple that we now know the odds of such things forming by chance are well within the realm of cosmic possibility.

Consequently, though we lack access to the facts we need in order to know just what happened on earth four billion years ago, it is more than reasonable to conclude that when all these common chemicals come together in the most favorable spots in a galaxy—such as earth—they will mix and produce random proteins, and after trillions and trillions of such random processes throughout all the star systems in all the galaxies, certainly at least one, if not many, somewhere, will inevitably turn up by chance a protein that can reproduce itself.

Once reproducing chains of amino acids exist, mutation inevitably takes hold. Whether from damage to these molecules from radiation and chemicals and other environmental hazards, or from mere errors in reproduction, we know mutation cannot be avoided, especially by a primitive replicator that lacks any mechanisms for limiting, preventing, or repairing it. So, in fact, not only is random mutation in reproduction inevitable for the first life, such life would experience a very rapid rate of mutation.

2. Evolution of Mind

Two things that confer endless advantages are the ability to reason (to analyze and thus respond in logical ways to the environment) and the ability to recognize repeating patterns in oneself and one’s environment, as an aid to reason.

All animals reason in some sense. Every brain, no matter how simple, engages some sort of logic, however simplistic, that helps it intelligently respond to sensations, even if only to a small degree. But the more complex the brain, the more complex and subtle—and thus the more advantageous—its ability to perceive things, and to think about them. Likewise, the more sensory organs one has, and the more sophisticated they are, the more abundant and accurate your data about the environment will be—another obvious advantage. And so we see over time that sensation, perception, and reasoning advanced in animals over the ages, as some brains enlarged and connected to ever-increasing arrays of sensory organs of ever-increasing power.

Eventually, at the end of an ages-long line of development in brain complexity, after hundreds of millions of years of trial and error, a brain developed so complex that it was capable of perceiving itself and its own thought, and this made self-identification and self-knowledge possible (see http://pastebin.com/GxHsN9ap)—which also made a recognition and comprehension of other minds possible (by analogy to our own), as well as a recognition and comprehension of abstractions. And this made sophisticated language possible, as well as advanced reason (see http://pastebin.com/0VYSUyRF).

With language, which may have been the original driving element in all this, thought patterns can be organized and analyzed more quickly, efficiently, and creatively, and they can be communicated, passed from one member of a population or group to other members, very easily. This was an unprecedented development: now, units of survival-advantage (such as ideas and knowledge) did not have to await the slow process of growth and reproduction, but could spread almost instantly, could even be created wholesale—and intelligently. No longer was a drawn out process of random chemical mutation and reproduction required for adaptation. Now, direct feedback loops, and the ability to simulate circumstances and thus sift good ideas from bad with greater ease and less risk, could produce ever-increasing adaptation in a single organism or population within a single lifetime. These “acquired advantages” could then be passed on, even to non-relatives. And the advantage, of things like true knowledge, creative innovations, and abstract investigations, is quite obvious.