After yesterday’s entry I kept feeling hopeless about the dystopia I had travelled to in my mind…even if I did say, acquire all this knowledge to understand the world, I would somehow also have to take all the power to make the right changes. Wouldn’t educating myself otherwise just be to my benefit?
When I was a child I didn’t question adults. I just assumed they had all the answers and that those answers were it, end of story. Growing up, I realised that in almost every field we are just trying to develop upon what knowledge and experience we already have. We often cannot be sure, but we have to make a decision on the best information available. Sometimes the outcome isn’t good, which is why we are often so resistant to change tried and tested methods.
When we try something new, it should be small, incremental changes to test things out, without potential massive consequences. Maybe a lot of tests can be carried out simultaneously, revealing what can be further advanced. This idea led me to think about evolution, and how over time this is how we have acquired experience and knowledge. Through accidents, purposeful tests – in evolutionary terms, ‘mutations’ – we have the capacity to succeed or adapt to changing circumstances. The fact that mutations tend to reappear creates a resilient and diverse progression.
I drew this image thinking I’d try draw a diagram to explain evolution. It’s interesting because it’s a branching pattern endlessly repeated in nature – in trees, blood vessels, rivers and tidal estuaries. The different colours at the end of each branch signify a specific type of mutation.
meandertect 