Charles Darwin, born 215 years ago, died 142 years ago, didn’t believe the most successful lie ever told, according to which the past is in a book.
Instead of that he decided to find out what happened in the past by himself. Aged 22 he embarked on a five-year voyage on a Cherokee-class 10-gun brig-sloop named “Beagle”, after which he concluded — like yours truly, albeit for different reasons — all species descend from a common ancestor, ours included.
- “It’s not the strongest that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” – Charles Darwin
- “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.” – Charles Darwin
These and other statements got Charles Darwin declared a heretic, prosecuted, and his discoveries banned from taught at school.
While a lot of water has gone under the bridge since Darwin’s time, together with a lot of other stuff too, it’s still only the species most responsive to change that survive.
The most recent example of this is the appearance of words 13,750 years ago when the age was stone, the Sahara green, Northern Europe under 1-mile-thick ice.
The species most responsive to that change is ours, that is the only species on the planet that now uses words. In the 13,750 years since, using words has got us to the top of the food chain, no other species even close, with no end in sight.
In other words, words have revolutionised evolution.