Imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, “This is an interesting world I find myself in, an interesting hole I find myself in; fits me rather neatly, doesn’t it? In fact, it fits me staggeringly well! It must have been made to have me in it! — Douglas Adams
That is quite a remarkable thought. However, I do not need to be a puddle to ponder such a profound question. I, as myself, can wake up one morning and marvel at the miracle of finding myself in surroundings that fit me so well. Furthermore, I wonder, how is that even possible? Do I happen to just fit into the surroundings, or is it the other way around, with the surroundings having managed to fit my traits?
I could imagine a thought experiment where I go to sleep and during the night, get hit on the head, waking up significantly more intelligent than I was before. [Note: I guess this could be considered a different kind of awakening — suddenly gaining enlightenment.]
When I wake up in the morning, endowed with the newly acquired gift of intelligence, I find my mind overflowing with all kinds of questions that I lacked the intellectual wherewithal to contemplate before. Intriguingly philosophical questions about how and why my personal traits align so harmoniously with the external world.
Back in my school days of elementary physics, I had learned about the electromagnetic spectrum, but my mind did not show any curiosity about why my eyes are attuned to seeing the part of the spectrum that ranges from violet to red — a range in which so many visual wonders of the external world exist. Now, my more intelligent self is eager to understand why.
Similarly, why is the audible range of my hearing from 20 to 20,000 Hertz (Hz), allowing me to hear things happening around me?
Filled with curiosity, I start to wonder where I should look for answers, or if there are any answers to begin with. If I keep my curiosity burning and continue searching for answers, I have a feeling that I will find them.
With perseverance, and by digging through the books in the local library and conducting searches (thanks to Dr. Google and Bing), I begin to unravel the reasons.
The reason that the physiology of my eyes and their interaction with neurons are tuned to register the electromagnetic spectrum between violet (380 nanometers) and red (750 nanometers) is that the Sun, the ultimate source of energy for all living organisms on Earth, emits radiation whose spectral density peaks around these wavelengths.
The physiology of the eye is similar for other living organisms in that we all have also evolved our visual traits to take advantage of this fact. In this way, we share a commonality in what we can perceive.
The curious fact is that we did not need to know anything about the electromagnetic spectrum or the spectral density of the Sun. We did not have to first analyze the spectral density of the Sun and decide, ‘Hey, let’s engineer the physiology of our eyes to take advantage of this.’ Instead, the process of natural selection, working under the given environmental conditions, did that for us.
The physiology of my eyes is a case where the hole was there, and I evolved to fit into it.
The story is the same for the physiology of my ear, which is capable of responding to longitudinal waves between 20 Hz and 20,000 Hz.
This is because the typical conditions at the surface — namely, the pressure and density of the air — allow such longitudinal waves to travel most efficiently through the air. Once again, most biological organisms share this commonality, and the reason is the guiding hand of natural selection. Needless to say, once again the hole was there, and I evolved to fit into it.
The fact of the matter is that, living under the glory of the Sun — the giver of energy that we all rely on — and guided by the patient, yet firm hand of the principles of natural selection, various biological organisms are actors on a stage. They have evolved to share common traits and are engaged in a play where they can see, hear, feel, and smell each other, participate in the unfolding of each other’s lives over time.
So, what to tell the puddle about its amazement upon waking up and finding ‘an interesting hole that fits its form so well’? The answer is to say, ‘Not so fast, my friend. Perhaps the hole was already there, and it was the malleability of your form, working with the tendency of natural systems to settle into a state of least potential energy, that did the trick. And when you woke up, you discovered that you fit so well into it.
In the end, considering the innumerable characteristics, traits, and forms I could have embodied, there is likely a reason why a particular solution was selected among many possibilities. To understand why, I just have to wonder and ask the question.
Ciao.
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