The smartest thing I've read all week

Olivia Judson reminds me why I love the university.

Let's Get Rid of Darwinism

"Charles Darwin was a giant. He did not merely write 'On the Origin of Species' — one of the most important books ever written by anyone — in which he describes how evolution by natural selection works, and what some of its consequences and implications are. He also wrote — and this list is not exhaustive— a treatise on the formation of coral reefs that is still thought to be correct; a definitive monograph on barnacles, both extinct and extant; a book about how earthworms make soil; a now-classic text on carnivorous plants (the ones, like Venus fly-traps, that ensnare and digest insects); a book about the strange ways that orchids get themselves fertilized; and an account of the five years he spent aboard the ship HMS Beagle, which has become a classic of travel writing.

As if that wasn’t enough, he proposed sexual selection — the idea that decorations and ornaments, like peacocks’ tails, evolve because females in many species prefer to mate with the most beautiful males. Sexual selection has since become a major field of research in its own right.

In short, Darwin did more in one lifetime than most of us could hope to accomplish in two. But his giantism has had an odd and problematic consequence. It’s a tendency for everyone to refer back to him. 'Why Darwin was wrong about X'; 'Was Darwin wrong about Y?'; 'What Darwin didn’t know about Z' — these are common headlines in newspapers and magazines, in both the biological and the general literature. Then there are the words: Darwinism (sometimes used with the prefix 'neo'), Darwinist (ditto), Darwinian...

I’d like to abolish the insidious terms Darwinism, Darwinist and Darwinian. They suggest a false narrowness to the field of modern evolutionary biology, as though it was the brainchild of a single person 150 years ago, rather than a vast, complex and evolving subject to which many other great figures have contributed. (The science would be in a sorry state if one man 150 years ago had, in fact, discovered everything there was to say.) Obsessively focusing on Darwin, perpetually asking whether he was right about this or that, implies that the discovery of something he didn’t think of or know about somehow undermines or threatens the whole enterprise of evolutionary biology today...

Darwin was an amazing man, and the principal founder of evolutionary biology. But his was the first major statement on the subject, not the last. Calling evolutionary biology 'Darwinism,' and evolution by natural selection 'Darwinian' evolution, is like calling aeronautical engineering 'Wrightism,' and fixed-wing aircraft 'Wrightian' planes, after those pioneers of fixed-wing flight, the Wright brothers. The best tribute we could give Darwin is to call him the founder — and leave it at that. Plenty of people in history have had an -ism named after them. Only a handful can claim truly to have given birth to an entire field of modern science."

You gotta read the whole article. Brilliant stuff. Makes me miss university life. Except for the all of the pressures she cites. And all the people, there, as much as anywhere else, so completely convinced that they've got it all figured out.

What I like about universities is not having it all figured out. I genuinely like the journey as much as the destination. And I like best people who like to go on that journey with me. People who don't like to engage the important debates, or can't ever seem to learn anything from them, tend to be either arrogant or boring, or both.

I like people with a passion for life and for people and for thinking about them both, and who challenge me to think about them both more and better, as a consequence. Brandi was the last person I knew who had that kind of passion about people and life that I spent a good amount of time with. I miss having that kind of love and passion for people around in my life.

That was more nostalgia for grad school and my time with Brandi than a reflection on Darwin or Olivia Judson's brilliant column, here, I realize. I just miss a time in my life when it was more fun to think about life because my best friend was there every step of the way. I suppose that's why I don't date, anymore. I finally came to terms with that fact that I will never be happy until I find that kind of connection again.

Deeply thoughtful insight turns me into a sap, anymore, these days. I guess that's my way of saying I think I have kind of a crush on Olivia Judson.

And some memories of some good times.