By Jacob Gordon, INHC, FMT-C
In order for us to evolve into who we are, we had to adapt and work together.
Symbiogenesis
You are less human than you think you are.
You are made up of trillions of microorganisms.
I am not talking about the billions of microorganisms that live on your epithelial spaces (like your skin, nose, gut, etc).
I am talking about the microorganisms that live inside your cells.
What happened were one bacteria ate another bacteria, and created a much more adaptable cell.
Classic biology calls these organelles, but there is a history as to how we have these organelles. R
For example, mitochondria are a prokaryotic archaebacteria that symbiotically made its way into other other bacteria.
This allowed for single cell organisms to be able to produce a LOT more energy, giving enabling conditions to create multicellular eukaryotic organisms.
Another example of symbiogenesis are cyanobacteria symbiotically forming with prokaryotes to create chloroplast organelles in plants in able to be able to photosynthesize.
Retroviruses
Let's talk about retroviruses.
Retroviruses are essentially RNA based viruses that infected any of the gamete cells: a sperm cell, egg cell (ovum), or the combination (in its zygote stage) and then created a new genetic DNA code for that offspring. R
This can be an amazing part of evolution!
100-200 Million Years Ago
For example, 100-200 million years ago there was a shrew-like creature that either their egg or sperm had gotten infected with an RNA virus and it gave that offspring the miraculous ability to grow a placenta! R
With this fantastic ability of having a placenta, eggs could now attach to the uterus, and create a womb, and thus the egg grows inside, instead of outside.
That was a huge evolutionary advantage: getting protection and nutrients directly from the mother.
She also didn't need to stay in 1 place to watch her eggs and could migrate.
I can write out a whole book on this lol.
~400 Million Years Ago
Another example of this phenomenon was 400 million years ago, a RNA virus infected another gamete cell and gave the ability for neurons to form memory! R
So as you can see these can be hardware upgrades at the right timing and the right randomness.
Around three to four percent of our DNA consists of retroviruses.
Vaccines Outsmart Evolution
I am a fan of vaccines and it is one of the coolest things that we've done to outsmart evolution.
Let’s talk about human evolution…
Homo sapiens lived together with Australopithecus afarensis, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Neanderthals, and Denisovans, chimps, etc - all at the same time. R R
They were all just as smart as each other, they had sex with each other, they foraged and shared food together, and all had the ability to create art/music, bury their dead, and build/share tools. R R
So Why Are We The Only Ones?
The reason why Homo sapiens won over the other humanoids, was that they had a better immune variations, a larger variety of foods during the last Ice Age, and a higher population. R
But, they also had viruses that they picked up from being the dominant species in Africa from Africa’s vast forests/jungles.
This is a story, similar to how the Spaniards killed off the Native Americans with their viruses.
It's funny because every time Homo sapiens tried to travel north, they ran into a Neanderthal and they exchanged viruses, or when Homo sapiens traveled northeast towards Eurasia, they ran into Denisovans and the same event happened, and all vice-versa.