A micro and macroscopic view of life and how a hopeless world is not so hopeless after all... span of the bacteria is a factor). And of these many million mutations, most are silent, meaning they have no significant effect on the bacteria. A small but significant percentage are lethal, meaning they kill the bacteria soon after it is generated. And a very very small fraction confers advantages like protection from antibiotics.
Life
A micro and macroscopic view of life and how a hopeless world is not so hopeless after all... span of the bacteria is a factor). And of these many million mutations, most are silent, meaning they have no significant effect on the bacteria. A small but significant percentage are lethal, meaning they kill the bacteria soon after it is generated. And a very very small fraction confers advantages like protection from antibiotics.
So to prepare the species for the impending doom and ensure it tides over it, nature sacrifices several individuals of the species for it. This is the beauty of evolution, it may be harmful to the individual at times, but a boon for the species as a whole.
Now let’ s extrapolate the above to our day to day life and to humanity as a whole. What is life if not a sum total of events? And what are events if not happenings which got selected from millions of other possibilities each with its own probability? Much like nature prepares the microbe species to combat threats to its existence and achieve a larger goal( survival of the species), the day to day hiccups in our lives, prepare us for a larger objective, success in some form.
Now again, like all microbes don’ t acquire the one mutation which can ensure they survive when exposed to some new drug, all humans too do not end up successful. But those who do, they change the course of the world for the better forever( the larger goal again- thriving of the species). While dinosaurs and mammoths came and went, the microbes have survived and continued to thrive- a success attributable in part to their high rates of mutations. Likewise, equate mutations to risk taking in life, those who risk it out, tend to be the ones who succeed tremendously, never mind the fact that several others perish while trying to attempt the risky endeavor. And it is the few who achieve the pinnacle after taking the risk who are remembered as the leaders, inventors and other great personalities...
So, don’ t you agree, that a seemingly hopeless world is not so hopeless after all, once you take into account the microscopic( the microbe example) and the macroscopic( the greater good of the species) into account?
Dev Desai 3096, Batch of‘ 14