A Thought for the Week  

Offered by David Apollo

NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless II on his way to
max distance from Shuttle Challenger. McCandless
became the first astronaut to maneuver in space
untethered. - Feb. 7, 1984

A while ago I considered posting either a "Thought For The Week" or Critical Thinking Essay regarding space travel, space exploration, and the apparently fully assumed and shared goal to find other areas "Not On The Earth" to colonize.

Among the rationales offered for funding (the enormously expensive effort) publicly was that we would then have other options in case The Earth became uninhabitable by us. Or, so crowded that some would want to go elsewhere.

We've had these situations occur in human history many, many times. Of course, the "other place" we sought was "somewhere else on Earth." Historically that is all that we could get to and the Earth seemed endlessly huge.

It is a hallmark trait of many homo sapiens that we tend to lose interest in the "Thing That We Are Used To." We seem keen not just in finding something "Different," but in finding something that can be described with not just one, but several of the following adjectives:

• bigger,
• more valuable,
• more interesting,
• more difficult to obtain,
• something that others (competitively) would also want,
• more beautiful,
• more addictive,
• having higher connotations of status,
• etc.

It is also true (i.e. Undeniably Obvious, yet apparently missed) that realistically, for us to live ANYWHERE else but on the Earth sustainably, we would need to evolve the ability to live and thrive there WITHOUT the extraordinarily restrictive technology we need now given our current physiological constraints and abilities. So far, anywhere else found that is Not The Earth is a nearly totally unnatural place to live in.

And then I was reminded of the tardigrades!

Considering that the only thing at all that the ConserveLiberty resource advocates is the "conservation of liberty to be what you were built to be" ... this week's "Thought for the Week" essay is offered.

More than any other organism that lives and reproduces and has evolved on this planet, tardigrades are the closest thing known able to live (longest) in any of the environments Not The Earth that we might choose to try to inhabit (but naturally can't.)

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Tardigrades (water bears)

A color-enhanced scanning electron micrograph of a
water bear. Image: Eye of Science/Science Source

Consider what an awesome creature has evolved as its lineage has been simply free to unfold evolutionarily is it is naturally built to evolve!

Among other things, when stressed, it undergoes cryptobiosis, bringing its metabolic processes nearly to a halt. It can dehydrate to 3 percent of its normal water content. Just add water and the tardigrade roars back to life.

Roughly speaking, boil it (up to 300^o F), freeze it (down to -458^o F), irradiate it (dosages 100x greater than a human lethal dose,) or toss it into the vacuum of space - it won't die.

They are one of the few multicellular organisms able to transfer genetic material horizontally transfer genetic material horizontally. To be clear - they can acquire additional genes from elsewhere midway through life. Something most other higher organisms cannot do.

Finally, they are found about everywhere on the planet. For everything you wanted to know about tardigrades, ← click here.

Since none of these conditions occur where the tardigrades inhabit normally, how or why would these traits have become selected for evolutionarily?

Well, that brings up the Primary Truth about Evolution ... again. And that is that evolution is a random process. Traits are not evolved in response to their being needed. Rather, traits evolve randomly, via random mutations. Then, if they happen to be needed at a particular time when not having them is disadvantageous for the continuation of a lineage, the desired trait is selected for (due to survivability) by the conditions an organism with the altered traits finds itself within.

Random changes happen all the time. With each generation. They are not intentionally directed. Circumstances (only) select for survival.

Natural selection is indifferent to whether
we are happy or sad, enlightened or deluded.

Natural selection actually doesn't care about anything at all.
We see its impact only with reproduction and survival.

Related Reading

• Horizontal Gene Transfer
• Comparative genomics of the tardigrades Hypsibius dujardini and Ramazzottius varieornatus

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Conserve your Liberty.

Remain free to be what you have been built to be. And to evolve as you may need to be.

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