Our Complex World Is A Marvel

Thoughts & Reflections

By Dr R Neerunjun Gopee

After reading my article in last week’s issue of this paper, about ‘The Future of Life’ which was the theme of the ‘Nobel Prize Dialogue’ held in Japan in March, a reader from the US sent me the following post: ‘I have tried to understand some questions about life. Though I tend to believe in the Darwinian theory of evolution, yet I marvel at the almost perfect outcome of environment, natural forces, vegetation, animal and human life on earth. DNA, genome and cellular structures etc. are so complex that it’s so hard to imagine their evolution in their own way over billions of years.’

Darwin’s Theory of Evolution vs creationists. Pic – YouTube

I was not surprised that an engineer should ‘marvel’ at how complex life has evolved almost to perfection from the interplay of several factors, through processes which would appear to have unfolded ‘in their own way.’ By which is presumably meant without any guidance from any known entity or ‘Intelligent Designer’ aka God, which those opposed to Darwin’s Theory of Evolution are staunch proponents of, calling themselves the creationists.

The big flaw in the creation thesis is that it postulates only a ‘creator’ – as do other similar belief systems – whereas in front of our very eyes what we observe is that existence pans out in continuously repeating cycles of creation-sustenance-destruction. For example, all that is made of matter, star or living things like plant and animal, is born or ‘created’, lives or is sustained for some period of time, then dies or is ‘destroyed.’ From the tiniest organism like a virus or a bacterium to the largest star, it is the same cycle that they undergo.

However, that is another, equally fascinating matter. Our focus here is on how the wonders of the natural world manifest evidence of complex design – exactly what engineers themselves are used to, as they build up complex and equally marvellous structures starting from simple materials that are assembled step by step to produce infrastructure such as buildings and bridges. The latter are my favourite objects of admiration, though I feel rather ill at ease when I look down below at the vast expanse of water. So, while walking on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco or the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, for example, I have concentrated my sight on the magnificence of the steel structures and marvelled too at their complex design!

The foremost contemporary protagonist of Darwin’s Theory is the British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins who elaborated on the subject in his first book ‘The Selfish Gene’ published in 1975. He followed this up with a second book in 1986, ‘The Blind Watchmaker’. Stating that ‘The problem is one of complex design’, he proceeded to demonstrate how ‘The complexity of living organisms is matched by the elegant efficiency of their apparent design,’ his aim being to ‘convey something of the sheer wonder of biological complexity.’ In other words, how starting from seemingly simpler structures like molecules nature arrived at complex organisms like plants and what is considered to be the summum bonum of evolution, human beings. He aimed to ‘convey something of the sheer wonder of biological complexity.’

In that book he explored ‘how the unconscious, automatic, blind yet essentially non-random process of natural selection discovered by Darwin is the only answer to the most important questions of all: why do we exist? What makes us know how we are? Is there some grand design at work?’

In his third book, ‘River Out Of Eden’ (1995) Dawkins lays out the scheme whereby a ‘seemingly innocent property’ namely ‘an ability to self-replicate; that is, the object is able to use the surrounding materials to make exact copies of itself, including replicas of such minor flaws in copying as may occasionally arise.’ This build-up from simplicity to complexity occurs by crossing what he calls successive thresholds that can be schematically summarized as follows:

1. Threshold 1 – Replicator Threshold: Self-replicating system + rudimentary hereditary random variation + occasional mistakes in copying.
2. Threshold 2 – Phenotype Threshold: phenotypes survive because of phenotype availability.
3. Threshold 3 – Replicator Team Threshold: cells harbouring a conducive environment put together by a consortium of genes working together.
4. Threshold 4 – Many Cells Threshold
5. Threshold 5 – High-speed Information Processing Threshold: neurons – nervous system threshold.
6. Threshold 6 – Consciousness or Conscious Awareness Threshold.
7. Threshold 7 – Language Threshold.
8. Threshold 8 – Cooperative Technology Threshold.
9. Threshold 9 – Radio Threshold.

Threshold 10 – Space Travel Threshold. ‘Phenotype’ refers to the observable, complex ‘finished product’ e.g. human being made from the interaction of its genes with the surrounding environment.

It is interesting how, as a biologist, he describes language: ‘the networking system by which brains (as they are called on this planet) exchange information with sufficient intimacy to allow the development of a cooperative technology.’

The ‘replicator’ is the molecule of DNA which has now become part of our common parlance, so that we often hear expressions like ‘it’s hardwired in your DNA’ or ‘it’s in your genes.’ Everybody, well almost, knows that the characteristics we inherit from our parents are carried or transmitted by our genes, though not everybody may know that genes are actually made up of molecules of DNA. They are found in what is called the nucleus which is to be found at the centre of the cell, whose idealized shape in diagrams is spherical but actually it varies from organ to organ. In fact, the first lesson we learn in biology is that the cell is the fundamental unit of life.’ Like, for example, a brick is the fundamental unit of any building. Just as bricks placed together according to a certain order or design and are polished over by a layer of cement to give the building its aesthetic look, so too are living things made up of cells (which DNA has replicated), which are then polished over or covered by a skin to give it an appealing look. But, aha, the skin too is made up of cells!

And that is the wonder of nature, of the complexity that arises out of simplicity. Surely, we owe it to ourselves to be in awe of such wonder…

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 18 April 2025