<p><span id="docs-internal-guid-c79ab097-7db5-67eb-8eb5-feaa0b1614ad"> </span></p> <p dir="ltr"><span>1. “The fundamental unit of biology is... not the ‘self’ but the </span><a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2017/04/04/522011396/the-key-to-life-is-the-network" target="_blank"><span>network</span></a><span>,” says David Haskell in his mind-quaking book <em>The Songs of Trees</em>. <span id="docs-internal-guid-c79ab097-8170-11e6-5a66-8c9630215c6d"><span>He’s right. That other basic unit of biology, the selfish </span><a href="https://bigthink.rebelmouse.com/errors-we-live-by/every-self-gene-must-also-cooperate" target="_blank"><span>gene</span></a><span>, gets too much glory. All life needs relationships. </span></span></span></p> <p dir="ltr">2. Trees show that life’s seeming <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=1d_ODAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22the+songs+of+trees%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj6juOSnKTTAhUENSYKHYPWA54Q6wEIJjAA#v=onepage&q=dissolution&f=false" target="_blank">individuality</a> is “a temporary manifestation of <a href="http://pllqt.it/C1VGYv" target="_blank">relationship</a>.” A tree “is not an individual made of plant cells, but a <a href="http://pllqt.it/pPuIyf" target="_blank">community</a> of cells” from many species, “fungus, bacteria, protist, alga, nematode, <a href="http://pllqt.it/yWLrvV" target="_blank">and plant</a>.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><span>3. Many ocean-going microbes have evolved so that "their DNA cannot meet basic needs… The smallest viable genetic unit… is… the networked </span><a href="http://bit.ly/2naMdev" target="_blank"><span>community</span></a><span>" (separation means death). </span></p> <p dir="ltr"><span>4. Such relationship dependence is not rare, it’s the rule: “Microbe-free plants... would </span><a href="http://pllqt.it/HhKVDc" target="_blank"><span>quickly die</span></a><span>.” And microbe-lacking animals don’t </span><a href="http://bigthink.com/errors-we-live-by/each-of-you-is-a-multitude-heres-why" target="_blank"><span>thrive</span></a><span>.</span></p> <p dir="ltr"><span>5. These life-enabling collectives are called </span><em>holobionts</em><span>. “Every natural animal and plant is a holobiont consisting of the host and diverse symbiotic microbes and </span><a href="http://pllqt.it/I0y8tB" target="_blank"><span>viruses</span></a><span>.” </span></p> <p dir="ltr"><span>6. Genome gaps, and holobionts, show that evolution has discovered the joys (and woes) of specialization and division of labor — and its resulting interdependence (life teems with unseen </span><a href="http://bigthink.com/errors-we-live-by/is-evolution-teeming-with-unseen-teamwork" target="_blank"><span>teamwork</span></a><span>). </span></p> <p dir="ltr"><span>7. That a “smallest viable genetic unit” often isn’t all contained in a single genome complicates the idea of evolutionary fitness. We’ve long known about beyond-your-body genetic interests in “inclusive </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inclusive_fitness" target="_blank"><span>fitness</span></a><span>”: Kinship alters “</span><a href="http://bigthink.com/errors-we-live-by/every-self-gene-must-also-cooperate" target="_blank"><span>selfish gene</span></a><span>” calculus (loosely, it’s worth risking your life ”to save two brothers or eight </span><a href="http://pllqt.it/Zs9esh" target="_blank"><span>cousins</span></a><span>”). </span></p> <p dir="ltr"><span>8. But holobionts and Haskell’s networks suggest further kinds of inclusive (or collective) fitness, based on degree of dependence (not kinship). Somehow the logic of genes must embody and enact relational fitness (or collective survival knowhow) to handle extra-genomic relationships essential to survival (see extended “</span><a href="http://pllqt.it/R1vVuh" target="_blank"><span>survival vehicles</span></a><span>”).</span></p> <p dir="ltr"><span>9. At these higher or networked levels of life organization, collections of relationships sink or swim together (see bacterial social contracts in “Survival of the </span><a href="http://bigthink.com/errors-we-live-by/bacteria-have-a-social-contract-unnamed-natural-laws" target="_blank"><span>Friendliest</span></a><span>”). </span></p> <p dir="ltr"><span>10. These networked communities exhibit intelligence and behavioral responses at individual and collective levels (at nodes, and in relationships, and systemically). Nodes that damage their networks, harm themselves (see </span><a href="http://bigthink.com/errors-we-live-by/15-word-fix-for-major-tragic-mistake-needism" target="_blank"><span>needism</span></a><span>).</span></p> <p dir="ltr"><span>11. Haskell says "to claim that forests think is not an </span><a href="https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&hl=en&q=%22the+songs+of+trees%22+%22to+claim+that+forests+think+is+not+an+anthropomorphism%22" target="_blank"><span>anthropomorphism</span></a><span>" (they collectively take in, process, and react to environmental information).</span></p> <p dir="ltr"><span>12. Gene-centric views have struck too selfish a note, and other perspectives can reveal richer patterns. For example, a gene’s-eye view casts bodies as short-lived ways for (“</span><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=WkHO9HI7koEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=selfish+gene&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi__JbckKTTAhXPaCYKHeAzB2oQ6wEIJjAA#v=snippet&q=immortal&f=false" target="_blank"><span>immortal</span></a><span>”) genes to replicate. But Haskell’s networks of relationships also outlast bodies. And the logic of extra-genomic relationships constrains the “immortality” of genes (see unnamed natural laws that constrain </span><a href="http://pllqt.it/H4ByKD" target="_blank"><span>evolution</span></a><span>).</span></p> <p dir="ltr"><span>13. Haskell’s grander view of life helps reveal new need-centric relational logic patterns (see extending Turing to the logic of “universal </span><a href="http://bigthink.com/errors-we-live-by/universal-computers-replicators-survivors" target="_blank"><span>survivors</span></a><span>”). </span></p> <p dir="ltr"><span>14. Every “self” is a </span><a href="http://pllqt.it/51ABjM" target="_blank"><span>society</span></a><span>. No lone life can last long. Evolution has orchestrated life to be relational. And don’t forget Orgel's 2nd rule: Evolution is cleverer than </span><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=PEp8DAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=bach+bacteria&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwio0vLyyZrTAhVKw4MKHbEtCC8Q6wEIHTAA#v=snippet&q=orgel's%20second%20rule%3A%20evolution%20is%20clever%20than%20you&f=false" target="_blank"><span>you</span></a><span>. </span></p> <p dir="ltr"><span>PS Even physics is getting </span><a href="http://bigthink.com/errors-we-live-by/can-ancient-atomic-logic-cure-cutting-edge-science-problems" target="_blank"><span>relational</span></a><span>. </span></p> <p><span> </span></p> <p>-- </p> <p><em>Illustration by <a href="http://juliasuits.net/" target="_blank">Julia Suits</a>, </em>The New Yorker<em> cartoonist & author of </em>The Extraordinary Catalog of Peculiar Inventions</p>
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