In the original evolution scenario that Sri Aurobindo developed, evolution proceeds with first, the progressive evolution of the representations of the vital and after that is over, the progressive evolution of the representations of the mental. The drive is for consciousness to know itself in manifestation. When we apply quantum science to this theory it translates thus:
- Consciousness expresses itself via the manifestation of its quantum potentialities—new genetic potentialities as well as vital potentialities of form and function.
- What vital potentialities of form and function will be available when new genetic potentialities come into the picture and what will manifest for a given species of organism depends not only on unmanifest consciousnessbut also on the manifest species and organism. At every homeostasis, continuous slow Darwinian evolution will result unless and until there is urgent burning conscious intention to change at the manifest level.
- When the intention at the manifest level is in consonance with the evolutionary purpose of the unconscious, quantum leapsof evolution take place.
In this way of looking at the quantum theory of evolution, evolution is initially evolution of the vital, giving rise to newer and newer forms and functions and enabling progressively more and more expressions of consciousness. Also, evolution has two tempos: one slow, continuous, and mechanical as in Darwin’s theory; the other is rapid, conscious, and creative, consisting of an instantaneous quantum leap followed by many mini quantum leaps and natural selection in the manifestation stage of creativity.
By and large, the fossil data supports this quantum scenario of evolution as we have seen in the last chapter. There comes a crisis, most often brought about by large scale climate change. A significant portion of the manifest populations respond to the crisis, consciousness chooses to manifest new organs from the available genetic variations waiting in potentiality and quantum leaps occur. A new homeostasis comes about after a brief manifestation stage of biological creativity.
The creative process is the mechanism for the macro evolution of life—macro evolution is an expression of biological creativity. The creative process is not an isolated idea just to explain the evolution data; the same creative process is used by us humans not only for our own creativity in science, the arts, literature, and music, but also for our personal and social transformation.
The idea that evolution is a creative act of species group consciousness is considered as a heretical idea in conventional biology; however, the idea is implicit in Lamarckian theory of evolution. And this idea has now been verified.
Recall please! In 1988, the biologists John Cairns and his collaborators demonstrated that a certain kind of bacteria, when proffered food that it cannot directly digest, but can digest if it undergoes a one-step mutation, hastens up its own mutation rate and survives. This phenomenon, directed mutation, was heralded by the popular Newsweek magazine as evidence for Lamarckian evolution. The biologist Dennis Todd and I (1997) explained the data of Cairns et al in terms of Lamarckism and biological group creativity.
Quantum Evo-Devo
In conventional biological thought, genes are the only hereditary material and therefore the only player in evolution; it is from chance genetic variations that nature selects in the evolutionary process. There is no room for any contribution to evolution from the acts of living. The prejudice of the central dogma of biology—information can only flow from the genes to proteins not the other way around—prohibits that.
And yet the fossil data shows repeated evidence that the same biological forms repeat again and again as evolution proceeds. These forms, in other words, are remembered in some way; some kind of Lamarckian mechanism prevails. So, there must be a side door through which development can enter the discussion of evolution; we must use the side door without challenging the central dogma which is supported by experimental data.
In quantum biology, the straightforward explanation of the repetition of biological forms over and over again is that the universal biological software consciousness bestows an organ with when the organ evolved consists not only of function but also of form as our name for the fields responsible for the software indicates.
In this way, the biological evolution of organs and their software also produces templets of form-making in one fell-swoop of quantum leaping; in other words, consciousness and the morpholiturgical fields not only provide the organs with functional software but also guide their forms during evolution. Like all quantum objects, once the software is manifested and collectively, for the entire species, it returns to the unconscious as nonlocal memory with increased probability for future use. Note: although software is the result of repeated use and involves some conditioning, the conditioning is far from 100%; some quantum behavior continues; in particular, nonlocality.
Organisms exist in homeostasis. When a crisis occurs, they respond as a group with intention-making for survival. When this intention resonates with the availability of a gestalt of possibilities for a biological expression such as an organ, the quantum leap takes place. With increased survivability, the organism survives its existential crisis as the crisis passes after eliminating all but a small percentage of the old life forms. After a brief period of adjustments (the manifestation phase of creativity), some of the new organisms settle down to a period of homeostasis of adaptation and continuous evolution. Often a flurry of biological creativity occurs in the aftermath of the crisis producing a period of rapid radiation.
Often a whole bunch of new organs or major modifications of the old take place. As for forms, consciousness uses old templets of forms whenever available. Each such period of rapid change will additionally produce a lot of new forms.
And then another geological catastrophe, again a lot of extinction, and another flurry of quantum leaping giving rise to a lot of modifications of old forms/functions and addition of new forms and functions. These new forms then will act as templets for forms to be used in future such periods of rapid evolution.
Avantgarde biologists (Carrol, 2005) have named this process appropriately evo-devo—evolution and morphogenesis take place hand in hand; evolution is not only based on inherited genes but also on inherited forms. However, without the quantum science, no mechanism of inheritance of form can be given; hence I rename this evolutionary process quantum evo-devo.
Old forms that appear early in evolution become potentialities for later use with higher and higher probability as they are reused again and again. Just like in any memory retrieval of human experience—recall enhances the probability of recall.
Vital evolution geared to survival more or less culminates with the evolution of the human being with the neo-cortical brain. The quantum in every form or organ of our physical body, the P-organ, comes correlated with a vital software—the V-organ–that guides the on-off of the gene activators that make proteins for the organ functioning (see fig. 5). I repeat: It is the movement of the V-organ in response to a stimulus that you experience as a feeling. Vital energy is the energy of movement (collapse or cessation of ongoing collapse) of the V-organ.
Fig. 5. Physical organs (P-organ hardware including physiology) come with a correlated vital counterpart (V-organ software)
Is there evo-devo in microevolution of Darwinian vintage driven by blind chance and survival necessity? Is there deviation from randomness? Recent findings show that even Darwinian evolution is not as random as was once thought (https:/www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/01/240108125801.htm); it seems to depend on history, conditioning. This is likely an effect of evo-devo.
Keep this important but necessary modification of Darwinism with you:
- Darwin failed to incorporate Lamarck’s idea of inherited characteristics in his theory, but his intuition about its necessity finally paid off. Yes, in quantum science the inheritance of acquired characteristics is incorporated in a scenario called quantum evo-devo: Darwinian evolution of genetic hardware coevolving with epigenetics–Lamarckian evolution of universal living developmental forms and functions gives us the organ hardware and physiology—P-organ. This is quantum evo-devo. This accounts for the repetition of certain biological forms and functions over and over again as evolution proceeds.
- The P-organs are correlated with vital software—the blueprints for organ function via their parallel quantum gene activators (fig. 6).
Fig. 6. Psychophysical parallelism: How feelings and organ functions are related
One final comment before passing. It is easy to make fun of Lamarckism and the idea of evolution via acquired characteristics. An unnamed author recently wrote a piece called I Ain’t a Joke in Illuminations Mirror, July 19, 2023, issue that I found on the Internet:
My high school teacher laughed while describing the theory of Lamarck.
He used giraffes.
Giraffes can’t stretch their necks and make them longer every generation.
It [Lamarckism] would mean mice whose tails are consistently cut in labs should have shorter and shorter tails over time. We can expect mice without tails after a few generations.
Jews could have had their male children born without the foreskin.
In Kenya, the Luo men would have had their boys born without their six lower front teeth.
The idea is laughable.
So my high school teacher laughed.
It was not my biology teacher. He had some decency. Maybe he knew the idea could be possible. Maybe not the lengthening of the necks, but another acquired trait. I never asked him.
Our theory of quantum evo-devo, I hope, has cleared up the situation for you. Acquired characteristics of organs that propagate are changes in the software of form and function, not changes in hardware.
Excerpt from Quantum Biology and Ascent of Humanity
