The Science of Evolution
“The universe required 10 billion years of evolution before life was even possible; the evolution of the stars and the evolving of new chemical elements in the nuclear furnaces of the stars were indispensable prerequisites for the generation of life.” ~ English theoretical physicist John Polkinghorne (The 10-billion-year estimate relies upon a dubious conventional model of cosmic evolution. Over 50 billion years is more likely.)
The emergence of life from inanimate complexes of compounds and subsequent evolution into a vast diversity came as a continuum of the unfolding of the cosmos. Biology introduced a new Matryoshka of intertwined relationships to those already extant in physics and chemistry.
“Organisms are well designed for living in their natural environments and respond to changes by altering their design, either morphologically or behaviorally, to better suit the new circumstances.” ~ American biologist Catherine Forster
“The history of evolution and biodiversity is fundamentally a history of the evolution of species interactions.” ~ John Thompson
Definitions
Genotype is the architecture of vital energy that powers an organism, of which genetic molecules (DNA, et cetera) are the manifest artifacts. For symbiorgs, such as multicellular eukaryotes, genotype also includes the microbiome, as the tiny ones contribute to the host energy system and genome.
Assuming matterism consistently yields an incomplete story about Nature. As matter itself is energy, only energyism can convey a comprehensive account. Genetics is an apt example.
The information storage necessary to drive life and heredity cannot possibly be stored solely in molecules of DNA. Instead, nucleic acid structures are molecular representations of information which is stored and employed energetically: energetic genetics (egenes).
More generally, matter must be thought of an inferential reference to energetic activity. The mind deceives with its object orientation.
Actuality proceeds via process. Objects are merely adumbrations of transient states. The idea of stasis – of object permanence – is only a mental artifice. The mind – the constructor of actuality – is an ongoing process of mentation.
Every organism has a mind by which it perceives and relates to its world. Mentotype is the psychological constitution of an organism. Mentotype includes perceptive and cognitive faculties, awareness loci, and innate worldview. Mentotype is displayed through behaviors, and so may only be discerned through prolonged observation. The tangible behavioral outputs of an organism – such as an animal nest – are physical expressions of mentotype.
Phenotype is conventionally defined as the composite of an organism’s observable traits, both physiological and behavioral. (The minds of organisms have traditionally been ignored by biologists.) Herein, phenotype refers only to physical traits.
While phenotype is largely programmatic in animals, mentotype offers malleability to deal with different situations and environments. Though relatively physically fragile and weak, humans came to dominate the planet because of their mentotype.
Organitype is the combined phenotype, mentotype, and genotype; the characterization of an organism physiologically and functionally.
“Ecological and evolutionary complexities interact.” ~ American entomologist Jason Harmon et al
