Shifting Our Perspective from Linear to Exponential

“People who think that evolution is just one gene changing at a time, have missed much of biology,” says Craig Venter, who was involved in sequencing the human genome. “We find all kinds of species that have taken up a second chromosome or a third one from somewhere, adding thousands of new traits in a second to that species.”

This makes more sense than what I was taught at school. Darwin thought finches in the Galapagos took many generations to evolve different types of beak. But, his theory didn’t really explain how they survived the interim period, before they developed the right beak to reach the food.

Shifting our thinking, away from the linear, step-by-step approach, towards the concept of acceleration, isn’t just happening in biology:

World population is increasing exponentially
The power of computers is doubling every year or so, and
Scientists took 15 years to understand the genetic code of HIV, yet they were able to sequence the SARS virus in 31 days.

That’s why Aubrey de Grey (see blog, 3 January) is confident that, “The first 1000-year-old, is probably only about 10 years younger than the first 150-year-old.”

The race is on for people who are alive today to benefit from technology that ironically, slows down aging.