Why natural selection is the root of all problems

This is based off a Future Shapers talk I gave. See here. 

Imagine it this way. 

Pretend Natural Selection is the majority shareholder of a global business called Humanity. Well for however many millions or thousands of years, Natural Selection called all the shots. 

And it was working well. The silent shareholder, the one who held only 10% voting rights could be just that – silent. 

The silent business partner is called the Conscious Self. The part of Humanity that is more aware and fine-tuned. 

Now these two business partners hit a bust up and have been at war ever since – that bust up is known as The Cognitive Revolution. 

The Cognitive Revolution

The Cognitive Revolution is basically the point where homo sapiens were able to share ideas and stories that heightened self-awareness. This gave humans their first big edge in the game of evolution – they no longer had to be the most physically dominant, but they could now coordinate more effectively. 

Of course this Revolution is explained in much more detail in books like Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. 

But what it led to was this huge fall-out between the business partners that has lasted to this day. 

You see, Natural Selection cares only about the bottom-line. 

Natural Selection is an out-and-out businessmen, who cares only about the bottom-line. About money coming in – or, in real-world terms, genetic material. 

Natural Selection does not care about making customers or employees feel happy – it only cares about passing your genetic material onto the next generation. That’s it. 

But the Conscious Self is interested in much more

This is the part of the brain, the business partner, that looks at the world and desires more. It cares about fulfillment, meaning and being loved. 

But alas, it is the minority, 10% shareholder. It doesn’t get as much a say. 

And it is constantly at odds with its partner. 

Natural Selection has been used to focusing on the bottom-line for millions of years, and so it will take a very long-time before it catches up to the progressive thinking of the Conscious Self – if at all. 

In the meantime, the environment which the Conscious Self has designed is poorly suited to Natural Selection’s shaped impulses and systems, creating a tension which is the source of all issues. 

For more on this, don’t forget to check out the Future Shapers’ talk. 

Future Shapers gives power to the people shaping tomorrow today, and is a series of TED-style talks by young creatives and leaders. 

Who do you think of when you read this? Would this piece ‘open a door’ for someone you know? If so, then share it with them.