| The Whole Universe is Learning
and Evolving. How About You?
by Charlie Badenhop
11/03
I find it invigorating to consider how creativity, and the ability
to learn and adapt, is a natural capacity built into all living
systems. The ability to learn is an instinctive and primary trait
that is a sign of life itself. Human beings, companies, forests,
the ocean, the entire environment of earth, and the solar system—all
are living systems, all are intelligent, all are learning, and all
are adapting to life... And in the process of all this "living"
each system will radically change over time.
As human beings it so often seems that what we want to be able
to do is adapt and change, WHILE staying the same. A feat that is
indeed impossible. Learning, evolution, and change, go hand in hand.
We can't have one, without the other two. In regard to the natural
world of living organisms and ecosystems, evolution is learning
on a grand scale. Evolution is nature learning.
Species and ecosystems adapt, radically change, and evolve over
long periods of time. Nature "learns" what to do in order
to maintain a certain stability, which invariably means adapting
to the change in the status quo.
When we take a broad perspective and view the ongoing process of
the evolutionary change that takes place all around us, it is clear
that nothing stays the same, and also that no one organism or no
one "aspect" of the natural environment changes on its
own. All of life is involved in a marvelous swirl of co-evolution.
Co-evolution is an integral part of adaptation, an integral part
of the relationships we share with other life forms, an integral
part of you and me. All the learning done by any one species, individual,
or
ecosystem, is always done in relationship to the learning of "others".
All of life spurs on the innovative process of change and learning
in all of life. The system known as "universe" is never
static.
The likelihood of any organism or environment surviving and perhaps
even thriving, over the long run, depends on the ability to adapt
to adverse conditions, new patterns of interaction, and ever changing
rules. Evolution is a conservative game of trial and error. All
systems, all organisms, (including human beings) are in a constant
state of evolution, and thus we are never complete as we are.
Evolution is progressive. All of life evolves from the simple to
the more complex. The learning and change involved in evolution
does not take place in a linear manner, but rather in a highly complex
manner where change in any one aspect of a complex system, in some
way begets change in all and every other aspect of the system.
In the ongoing process of evolution (be it biological evolution
or economic evolution) the environment both causes and selects the
characteristics that are most necessary for successful adaptation.
You might ask yourself "How does 'the environment' cause and
select the characteristics that lead to successful adaptation?"
A very interesting question to ask! With all of the competition,
with all of the seeming chaos, with all of the never before experienced
circumstances, how does the system itself stabilize and protect
itself in order to evolve and survive? Nature manages to rebalance
itself within certain limits that foster its preservation, the economic
landscape invariably does the same and "you" of course
are also evolving in much the same way. There is an intelligence
doing the deciding, it just is not an intelligence that we can honestly
say is "me" or "you". In every living system,
excess leads to moderation and deficit leads to short term proliferation.
Information is constantly being exchanged and adapted to. The whole
universe is learning and evolving. How about you?!
................................................................
About the author:
Charlie Badenhop is the originator of Seishindo, an Aikido instructor,
NLP trainer, and Ericksonian Hypnotherapist. http://www.seishindo.org
Contact Charlie at seishin@seishindo.org.
-Dorothy M. Neddermeyer
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