Positively the Last Word on Evolution

Positively the Absolute Last Word on the Subject of Evolution.

Comments On Primitivism And Hostile Environments.

Many scientists assume that because living terrestrial organisms are found thriving in the most inhospitable of places, that life elsewhere on other planets may be far more abundant than previously thought. Earlier notions held, prior to deep explorations into Antarctica and oceanic trenches, that life in any form could only exist within a relatively narrow range of “friendly” temperatures, plus other specific environmental conditions.

Since recent discoveries have found colonies of bacteria, algae, and other organisms living comfortably beside boiling, toxic thermal vents -- the most unlikely of habitats -- speculation has been fueled as to the likelihood of extraterrestrial life. With alvinellid worms, yeasts, and halobacteria as Earthly examples of what scientists refer to as extremophiles, other planets and moons previously discarded as possible homes to such life have been reintroduced as candidates for consideration, along with those deemed the most suitable.

The change in how scientists now approach this general topic, significantly increases the sheer number of sites where life might conceivably evolve. The premise for such thinking, however, again relies on observed circumstances as they currently exist. In doing so, this basis for optimism seems to ignore some rather troubling questions. Queries that, if correct, would once more reduce the odds -- in favor of life -- to more sobering, less exuberant levels.

Chances are high that any resilient lifeform, capable of surviving environmental extremes, migrated from less harsh, friendlier, more moderate locales. At one time, oxygen was a gas poisonous to early forms of life which eventually embraced the toxin as a vital, life-sustaining necessity. It seems quite reasonable that on a planet where life begins and succeeds, it will ultimately occupy every niche available. And since the Darwinian forces of Natural Selection are now seen as possessing the ability to fill niches of extraordinary variety, it is equally reasonable to suspect that high temperature thermal vents would become, sooner or later, a home to something living. But only as an end, and not a beginning. Only as a location that, over eons of time, became homey to organisms that slowly adapted to new and extraordinary habitats.

It is a testimony to the aimlessness, the lack of conscious or intelligent design, that life would venture into such perilous domains. Realms that are far from being hostile to the indigenous populations who reside there. These lifeforms are highly evolved, even more so, perhaps, than their fair-weather cousins. It could be postulated that the most successful forms, thriving in the most cozy of environments, are indeed the more primitive. And those occupying the harshest environments, the most sophisticated.

A less dramatic, more probable scenario contends that very specific conditions are a prerequisite for life to first emerge anywhere. It is here, then, that a narrow range of temperatures and other factors determine the advent or failure of the life process. Soon afterward, concepts of primitive and hostile become increasingly blurred and murky, while the environment grows ever more friendly and hospitable to an ever expansive array of adaptive species.

As life expands and evolves outward from its initial roots, it finds ways into whatever locales the momentum of natural selection carries it. Though not worst-case scenarios, remote niches do represent last-case scenarios. This does not bode well for life as a force blossoming under a wide set of conditions, but unfortunately as a slim possibility under the best of circumstances.

Some last questions that include tidbits of conjecture:

01. To what final, ultimate extent might life be able to adapt itself?
02. Are there any limits to the genetic mutations possible via Natural Selection?
03. Are microbes and others still adapting to ever more severe conditions?
04. Is it only a matter of time before organisms not only live near volcanoes, but dwell inside them?
05. Do spores, bacteria or others, already thrive near the fringes of Outer Space? In Space itself?
06. Might one form of life based upon one or more elements, evolve into forms based on other elements? Carbon-forms into silicate forms and vice versa.

In closing, the notion that increased understanding leads only to more questions, is especially noteworthy. Essays of the sort found here and elsewhere, that delve into the endless mysteries of life, here and elsewhere, should always conclude with questions, and rarely if ever, the answers to anything. The best we can hope for, are individual slides that, when slid under a microscope and scrutinized, offer tantalizing glimpses of strange, unfamiliar realms and even other dimensions--whatever those might be.

Places and things about which we might, at the very least, formulate the most naive of questions.