The Emergence of Innovation
Recently, I have been listening to the audio version of David Quammen’s book, The Tangled Tree. The book is an engaging historical description of the discovery of endosymbiosis by scientists. Endosymbiosis is the process by which an early single-celled organism engulfed another single-celled organism whereby the collaboration persisted and reproduced.
The origin of life is an amazing tale in and of itself. The beginning of life on Earth required a collection of molecules to persist over time and then be able to replicate itself. That is no small feat. But then in the case of endosymbiosis, two of these living things of different varieties became intertwined. One probably consumed the other and then this turned into a mutually beneficial collaboration. Beyond that, the system needed to develop a process to replicate itself intact. This is the the origin of Eukaryotic life, which led to all multi-cellular organisms. In particular mitochondria and chloroplasts are cellular structures that have been shown to have evolved in this way. The process of discovering this surprising fact makes the book a worthwhile read. It is quite remarkable actually. I mean when you think about what is possible in terms of innovation in the history of life this is an incredible example. Humans, of course, have done some impressive things as well: create spoken and written language, control fire, build cities, invent agriculture, and develop AI. But somehow to my mind, these things pale in comparison to endosymbiosis.
Quammen’s book has gotten me thinking about the nature of innovation and how humans tend to think about it. Often contemporary human innovations are talked about in terms of intentionality, talent, and persistence. We tell stories of the majestic accomplishments of people and civilizations. The clock, the steam engine and the pencil are celebrated for their ingenuity and inventiveness. These stories are naturally compelling and exciting to us. There are in fact numerous books devoted to this topic. Maybe our brains are somehow wired to like these kinds of stories.
So it is interesting to me that endosymbiosis just emerged in an apparently accidental fashion. In fact it seems like this kind of emergence of innovative new things is a natural part of life on Earth. The origin of life itself fits this mold. While endosymbiosis is a striking example, it is one of many incredible innovations in the history of life. And there was no intention to create it, or any planning. There was no thought at all as it happened well before the emergence of thought producing brains.
So this makes me think that the stories that we tell about human innovation might have an unhelpful bias. Maybe the way we look at the world through the lens of intentionality and preparation is not the best way to understand the innovation. Maybe innovation is built into the core of who we are, where we come from and how the world works. Maybe innovation is emerging all the time without us having to do much of anything to facilitate it.
At first this might feel like a let down. How can you describe landing humans on the moon, the development of nuclear energy, the incredible recent improvements in battery technology, to give just a few examples, as emergence. Aren’t these stories of human exceptionalism? Don’t we have to give credit to the people who made these things happen? Aren’t the personalities involved a key part of the story?
Perhaps we just need to slightly change our perspective. What if we shift our focus from enabling and promoting innovation in a causative sense to appreciating and celerating the beauty of this process of emergence. What if the cause of the innovation is the wrong thing to focus on? What if we move away from trying to optimize innovation and focused instead on listening to it, and appreciating all of its intricacies and beautiful structure? Maybe our understanding of the world does not require us to control it. Could this new perspective help humans be more humble and take better care of the Earth which we inhabit? Could this help us see that we are just one small piece of an incredibly complex universe that is constantly emerging. I am still trying to make sense of all of these ideas and I don’t have the answers. But is does seem like emergence might be one useful way to improve our perspective on the world around us.