#1389 - Tiktaalik
This morning, I want to start with this extract from an interview with Werner Erhard by Norman Bodek from the mid-eighties.
Imagine the oceans as an evolutionary space. We start out with a bit of protoplasm in a tropical, primeval sea. We then add eons and eons of time. Eventually life will appear. Then, after more time, life will fill the whole sea—from top to bottom. After enough time, whatever possibilities existed for evolution in the sea will be used up. Evolution in the sea may continue, but it produces weird variations on possibilities already tried. The whole possibility of "evolution in the sea" eventually becomes saturated.
Then, out of nowhere, a fish walks up on the land. Suddenly, at that moment, a whole new domain of possibility for evolution appears. At the very instant when the fish walks up on land, elephants and eagles come into existence—not as realities, but as possibilities. It is not that they are inevitable, but they are possible. For elephants and eagles to appear physically, evolution must begin again its long series of trials, wins, and losses. Thus when the fish walks up on land, the character of evolution does not change, but the space of possibility in which evolution occurs is entirely new; what is possible through evolution is completely altered.
In my tiny world, I aim to be that first fish. I aspire to develop the ability to create new domains of possibility for my evolution and the evolution of the ecosystem in which I live.
I know it's a pretty bold intention.
Almost presumptuous, perhaps.
I'm even a bit afraid of writing it.
But I'm also excited.
What I profoundly believe, though, is that any transformation in the world around me begins with a transformation inside me. That is the starting point. To create a new domain of possibility, I have to become that domain. I have to expand my awareness and subtract my conditioning and limitations to step out of the water and leap onto the beach.
The earliest fish to walk on land was most probably the Tiktaalik which lived approximately 375 million years ago.