http://organelle.org/symbio/symbio.html
What we call evolution is a tiny subset of what is going on here. And the context it is going on »in… is not ‘competition’, so much as it is »promotion within an absolutely symbiotic context.
Effectively, however, evolution is not ‘what is going on around here’… symbiosis is. And evolution is driven, not by competition, an absurd metaphor here, but but »relational intimacy. The results can be interpreted as competition, but we should pause and ask ourselves if we would recognize it if it were instead promotion.
Do sperm compete to ‘win’ the human egg? Or is it that, by a process of intelligent promotion, finer progenitors will proceed on to repeat the process for, with and as the entire group (and with and for, in and as all biorelational contexts in which it is participating).
The problem is that we do not really understand this process, especially since our approach is fundamentally biomechanical, yet the reality we are observing is far more than merely thus. Vastly, shockingly more.
Symbiosis is to evolution as the possibility of languages are to the spelling of words. It is not necessary to be able to spell or read in order to speak, but knowing how to spell expands one’s relationships with language. Yet no one would say that ‘language is just spelling’, even though reading and writing necessarily require the associated skills (for now). So the fact that there appear to be words and even maybe paragraphs, does not mean ‘nature is a typewriter’, or anything like that.
Organisms are not merely DNA/RNA/mRNA vehicles. They are not merely anything. In fact, no one has the slightest idea what these are or where they really came from. And that, by itself, should endow us with both awe and great caution before the temptation to ‘announce what life is or does’ according to some particular framework from science, research… or religion.
Symbiosis is a much clearer idea of ‘what is going on around here’ than its necessary adjunct ‘evolution’.
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