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Random Thoughts
The Ironic Defeat Of Genes, Markets & Empires
by
Gaurang Bhatt, MD
It was William Hamilton’s scientific analysis
that explained the altruism of worker bees and the differential
cannibalism of salamander populations and formed the basis of Richard
Dawkins’s popularization of the “Selfish Gene” theory. These took the
evolutionary selection process deeper to the level of gene selection
just as Murray Gell-Mann’s quark theory did to particle physics. In the
simple unicellular organisms with haploid set of genes reproduction in
its asexual form is based on mitosis. A single set of chromosomes
replicates into a double set and then bifurcates concomitantly with
division of the cell body to give rise to two daughter cells each with a
single set of chromosomes. There is no conflict between the duplicated
chromosomes as each of the two sets is destined for a future life in the
two daughter cells with their passports to immortality.
In some
of such organisms sexual reproduction occurs only in trying times. This
diploid avatar then buckles down by developing a hard resistant exterior
called a “tun” which is blown by the wind from a dried out pond to
distant regions, till it lands in a water collection (pond) or till the
rain comes and provides it with a suitable pond. It then proceeds to
divide into two daughter cells and reverts to reproduction by asexual
binary fission until adversity arrives again. In these creatures
haploidy (single set of chromosomes) is the normal way of life and
diploidy (double set of chromosomes) is merely a phase to combat
adversity. Over time, in human beings and most multicellular organisms,
the process becomes topsy turvy. The diploid phase becomes the life
cycle of the organism and the single haploid stage occurs only in the
germ cells, sperms in the male and ova in the female.
In the male, the division of
its germ cell into two sperms is an equal opportunity phenomenon
and each of the two sperms are fully capable of fertilizing an
ovum to form a zygote and then a baby. The sex of the baby is
determined by whether the sperm carrying an X chromosome (from the
father’s mother’s genes—a baby girl) or the sperm carrying a Y
chromosome ( father’s father’s Y chromosome –a baby boy) unites
with a mother’s X carrying ovum and fertilizes it. No wonder,
males are profligate sex maniacs willing to plant their sperm into
a willing and sometimes unwilling womb, to proliferate
indiscriminately, oblivious to sexually transmitted disease
including the fatal AIDS.
Females are choosy and
discriminating because they have to bear the burden of pregnancy
and child care. As Scarlett Ohara said to Rhett Butler when he
made an indecent proposal, “What’s in it for me but a passel of
brats”? Things have changed a bit since abortion on demand, oral
contraceptives, the morning after pill RU-486 and feminist
liberation, despite the ire and bete noire of conservative
Republicans. The problem runs deeper than the perverse obsession
of Republicans. |
Evolution’s answer to extreme selfishness is
ironic. Those who are so self-centered by their genetic compliment
to want to live their lives entirely for themselves often choose
not to waste their time, resources and feelings on having children
receive poetic justice by becoming dead ends for their genes,
ideas and philosophy.
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Evolution, to combat the shorter life span and more
rapid reproduction of parasites forever searching for the key to entry and
infestation of the bodies of multicellular organisms, invented meiosis in
the germ cells (sperms and ova).
In meiosis, the diploid
chromosomes (one set from the father and one set from the mother) line up
in the precursor cell of the germ cells and exchange homologous segments
with each other. This combinatorial strategy ensures that no two human
beings except homozygotic identical twins are the same. Thus the single
set of chromosomes in each sperm are a hybrid of the mother and father of
the male and similarly in the ovum a hybrid of the chromosomes of the
mother and father of the female. To make matters worse, the precursor of
the ovum in the female divides twice into four cells of which only one
becomes the ovum and the remaining three cells are destined to a dead end
in the future, in the lottery for immortality.
Genes,
as I emphasized earlier are selfish like rich persons, lobbyists,
corporations and politicians and more so than ordinary persons. Thus they
find loopholes in their desire for the limelight of being in the ovum and
not end up as dead ends. Some rebellious ones do not separate out during
cell division and their non-disjunction, particularly in older women,
leads to an extra chromosome in the ovum resulting in a triple dose in the
fertilized zygote (two from mother’s ovum and one from father’s sperm).
Such abnormalities, called trisomies, are the cause of Mongolism and many
premature abortions.
Rogue genes called segregation distorters,
also seek preferential inclusion into the ovum. There are even assassin
genes which cause the death of their twin sperm to increase their odds for
fertilizing the ovum by assassinating their competition. This Hobbesian
jungle warfare is countered by other genes to prevent the rogue gene from
jeopardizing their welfare by handicapping or destroying the human or
animal organism which is the vehicle for propagating the entire genome.
Meiosis was the evolutionary defense against such assassin genes because
it, by its lottery, keeps the assassin genes ignorant by double division
about whether its copy is located in the other cells produced by meiotic
division. Fortunately the assassin genes are not suicide bombers and
unwilling to detonate at the cost of destruction of its twin which maybe
in one of the other three sister cells..
All these regulatory
mechanisms are not perfect. Interested readers should look up the writings
and books of David Haig, Burt and Robert Trivers and Mark Ridley. The
bottom line of this long tirade is that selfishness of individual genes
can be detrimental to the organism as a whole, and evolution and the
parliament of genes has to and does act as a regulatory body to prevent
such selfishness from destroying the whole genome or the entire organism.
The lesson is equally applicable to markets and the behavior of a few
selfish greedy individuals who can destroy the national economy and
fanatic and egotistic leaders with delusions of grandeur of empire who can
destroy the entire nation.
Evolution’s answer to extreme
selfishness is ironic. Those who are so self-centered by their genetic
compliment to want to live their lives entirely for themselves often
choose not to waste their time, resources and feelings on having children
receive poetic justice by becoming dead ends for their genes, ideas and
philosophy. The more they propagate their ideas and infect others with
their memes and ideology, the more they succeed in bringing about the
demise and extinction of their genes and ideology. The epidemic is
contained by the immunity of the right thinkers with less self absorbed
genes. Such is not the case with unregulated markets manipulated by the
extremely selfish or the unchecked hubris and obsession with empires of
the power hungry megalomaniacs. The consequences of their folly is often
disproportionately borne by the innocent majority without greed, sin or
hubris. Often these are the elderly or prudent savers or the young
soldiers who are ruined, disabled or dead for no fault of theirs.
September 20,
2009
Image under license with
Gettyimages.com
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