Survival of the Fittest Misleading

Life is dynamic which keeps things interesting. It is also why we are bad predictors of the future. We have created intricate measures and theories but they still cannot tell us what the future will be because when anything changes, everything changes. As John Muir explained:

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe. – John Muir

We are all interdependent and nobody can survive without everything else. We need many abilities and capacities because the unexpected often happens and we must adapt. This means we need critical thinking so we can quickly adjust and adapt to our ever changing landscape. Survival of the fittest seems to have turned into an understanding that the strongest will survive. This, however, is a misunderstanding of what the fittest means. The fittest means the most adaptable.

Since all is connected, to create a thriving society, like a thriving forest we must be able to help each other. Dr. Suzanne Simard demonstrated that plants communicate with each other through their network of roots (or “Wood Wide Web” – see Tree’s to Nuts to People – ALL Connected SuperCooperators) to send messages about needs. A forest then, based on messages sent, diverts water and carbon to the most needed plants to help the forest thrive over any individual plant. Like plants in a forest, Martin Novak explains we humans are also SuperCooperators.

We are not competitors and when we collaborate and work as cooperators with others and the environment, everyone and everything benefits. As Tim Galloway explains in, “The Inner Game of Tennis” (see The Inner Game of Tennis Provides a Focus for Life), competition is really high level cooperation. We cooperate to play a game that will enable us to improve our capacities and play our best game.

What does this mean? To create the life we want it would benefit us to continually improve your abilities and capacities by learning more and helping others. We are all interconnected, sometimes we need help, sometimes we can help others. Both situations exist, and we don’t know when these different needs arise. Having more capacities enables use to better adapt to meet the every changing needs of our life. Improved capacities benefits adaptability which makes it more likely everyone and everything benefits.

Please share how you are learning more so you can create pervasive, reciprocal, selfish, selfless, synergistic interactions so everyone and everything benefits. Together we can generate comprehensive improvements.

Be Well’r,