Natural Selection can be said to have created two mechanisms for creating the two types of orders/‘enduring structures’ that matter to us, biological and social. The biological order is created via the well-known mechanism of biological evolution with genes being like the sentences which store the information necessary to create/coordinate life/order. If we remember from biology class, mutations cause new genes and thus new information to arise which lead to a different life-form which is then ‘naturally selected’ as it inadvertently competes with others, with the winner reproducing more and thus passing on more copies of the better-adapted/“fitter” genes/information on to latter generations while the less-adapted genes/information disappear or play an increasingly less significant role (see junk DNA). At its core we have competing information which survives by leading to the “fittest” “enduring structure”/order/life. This mechanism of biological evolution and genetics is well understood and… VERY IMPORTANTLY!!…There is little doubt that even though an animal like a human being is the result of the actions of some 30 trillion human-DNA cells and another 40 trillion non-human bacteria, it is definitely NOT the result of any conscious planning or design on their part. We clearly know that natural selection has been the sort of “designer” of the biological order and the numerous “systems” like the respiratory and nervous ones which help sustain and coordinate the entire cellular enterprise. Once again, even though the biological order is the result of the actions of cells, it is obviously not the result of any planning on their part.

At a very very fundamental level we can ponder the following. There are things happening in the entire universe, some of these “things” are simply “ways” or “patterns” or “algorithms” which can create “order”. As the “order” they create “endures”/spreads, so does the “way”/algorithm itself. In our planet, the physical/chemical environment eventually led to the emergence/evolution of what we commonly refer to as biological evolution with genes as the information/knowledge carriers and so on.

As natural selection was selecting for higher levels of order and complexity it eventually created multi-cellular organisms from unicellular ones. If we go back in time to when this important event was taking place, we find a unicellular world where being quick to reproduce was one of the most important traits of life. Single-celled life like bacteria have to be very good at multiplying, those that have genes that help to quickly multiply, and therefore copy their genes, will have a great advantage compared to those that don’t, and it is for this reason that the unicellular world if full of reproductive experts compared to our human reproductive capabilities. Some bacteria can reproduce in as little as 10 minutes. As Nick Lane explains:

“Bacteria replicate at colossal speed. When well fed, E. coli bacteria divide once every 20 minutes, or 72 times a day. A single E. coli bacterium weighs about a trillionth of a gram…In two days, the mass of exponentially doubling E. coli would be 2664 times larger than the mass of the Earth…Luckily this does not happen, and the reason is that bacteria are normally half starved. They swiftly consume all available food, whereupon their growth is limited once again by the lack of nutrients. Most bacteria spend most of their lives in stasis, waiting for a meal.” (Lane, p. 114)

The cells that make us up are descendants of such quick multipliers who underwent enough changes to suppress such wild reproductive capabilities, changes that were needed in order to cooperate in a larger multi-cellular enterprise/organism like our bodies. For example, while many simpler bacteria will just eat, grow, divide and therefore multiply given the opportunity, most animal cells have evolved what is called anchorage dependence, where in order to divide, cells first have to be attached/anchored to something. There is also density-dependent inhibition, a set of genes and mechanisms that prevent the cell from dividing/multiplying once they are surrounded by other cells. By being surrounded by other cells, this creates a denser environment, which triggers the density-dependent inhibition that prevents further/runaway cell division/multiplication. Another crucial mechanism of animal cells is that of apoptosis, a process of cell suicide where cells dissolve themselves and are sort of eaten up/consumed/recycled by surrounding cells. In order to cooperate, cells have to destroy/sacrifice themselves when appropriate. Syndactyly, is a condition where two or more fingers or toes are fused together. This is ok in some animals, but it is not in humans. In early human fetal development, webbing of the toes and fingers is normal, but eventually apoptosis occurs killing the cells that made up the webbing and the webbing disappears leaving us with our normal digits. Unfortunately for some people this process of apoptosis does not occur appropriately and they are born with webbed digits. Apoptosis occurs not just in this example but in many other situations, including many instances where cells are damaged.

“Cancers” occur when this highly evolved cell division and control mechanisms that are crucial for cells to work together on a larger enterprise, fail to properly control cell growth/division/life, leading to runaway growth and all the subsequent problems that this can cause the larger organism. As natural selection was doing its thing, selecting that which inadvertently led to a more stable/competitive/fitter order, these changes that enabled cells to coordinate in a larger enterprise, were naturally selected for in various lineages. Compared to their unicellular ancestors, cells that are part of multi-cellular organisms can be seen as more “civilized”, they have mechanisms (anchorage dependence, apoptosis, etc.) that help them cooperate to enable the functioning of the larger organism. Unfortunately, the process is not perfect, sometimes things fail and the cells can be said to revert to their more “tribal” existence where runaway reproduction is what came naturally to them. Cancers can be seen as the result of the still ongoing evolution and transition from single-celled life to multi-cellular life.

Our brief look at cancer is twofold. Not only does it help us understand how natural selection slowly adapts a more selfish unicellular existence to build more powerful, complex, and self-sustaining orders via multi-cellular animals, it also provides a window into what is currently happening to humanity and the evolution of the social order/organism/‘global economy’. Just like cells had to abandon/suppress/adapt characteristics which were crucial for their orderly survival(quick/ceaseless reproduction) and evolve cooperative systems(circulatory/respiratory/apoptosis/etc.), human beings are currently going through a similar process. For most of our evolution, until about 20,000 years ago, we lived in small tribes where tribal warfare was the optimal evolutionary strategy and one of the main reasons we are social andhave evolved big brains to begin with. As Steven Pinker tells us:

“… men go to war to get or keep women –not necessarily as a conscious goal of the warriors(though often it is exactly that), but as the ultimate payoff that allowed a willingness to fight to evolve. Access to women is the limiting factor on male’s reproductive success. Having two wives can double a man’s children, having three wives can triple it, and so on. The most common spoils of tribal warfare are women. Raiders kill the men, abduct the nubile women, gang-rape them, and allocate them as wives.” (Pinker, 1999, p. 510)

First you increase the economic pie available to your tribe/gene-pool by coordinating a raid and killing other men and children, and then you increase your reproductive success by raping the women and making them your wives. To be successful in war you need a strong sense of unity which translates itself into the strong nationalist/militaristic/patriotic tendencies we are so susceptible to and has the planet littered with nuclear weapons and “civilized” taxpayers believing we actually need them. The bond men make as co-warriors is likely stronger than male/female love. A female is easily replaceable (another raid, etc.) but the loss of that co-warrior that will help get the next female and/or defend you when you only get one chance at life is probably even more important. Just like natural selection has shaped us to enjoy sex due to the vital genetic payoff, it has also shaped us to enjoy war, killing, and torturing. Towards the end of WWII, Russia’s Red Army is estimated to have raped over 2 million German women. The Allies weren’t much better.

Given its importance, war/patriotism easily fills us with a great sense of purpose. England’s prime minister during WWII and national hero Winston Churchill shows us how inspiring, exciting and purposeful WWI was to him when he mentioned:

“I think a curse should rest on me — because I love this war. I know it’s smashing and shattering the lives of thousands every moment — and yet — I can’t help it — I enjoy every second of it.”

And in another occasion:

“My God! This is living History. Everything we are doing and saying is thrilling… Why I would not be out of this glorious delicious war for anything the world could give me…”

We shouldn’t be shocked when men murder and rape, the real miracle that has taken thousands of years of cultural evolution to create, are the modern cultural values we absorb that program us into respecting the body/property of all human beings regardless of age, sex, and race. The environment of war makes it easy for us to revert to such a state. Some of us are so convinced/brainwashed/molded by things like religion to the point where we might fool ourselves into believing we could never do such things, or that we are somewhat different than the men who do them. We label them “evil” or “mad” etc. which really prevents us from getting it right, accepting the reality that we are all such potentially vicious apes. Obviously modern evolutionary psychology/biology is helping us come to grips with such reality.