9. Some wrong questions

               
              To find the truth, you need to ask nature the right questions. If you are solving an engineering problem, consider a certain sample as a prototype, then it is logical to ask yourself why this or that solution was applied in this case. If we are dealing with living objects, which all have arisen as a result of a long process of evolution, then asking the questions: “why is some fragment constructed in this way” is often meaningless. By asking this question, you are implying that someone designed this piece with a purpose in mind. But there was no goal. One can only think about why it happened, but in living nature the question of the goal does not make sense.
If you look at the world through the prism of a religious mentality, then it is obvious to you that God was the designer. If God did it, then it is strictly forbidden to ask "why is this so", even more so.
               But the hand of God can be seen only where the attention of the natural scientist has not yet penetrated. No matter how much we try to embellish this conclusion, so dark for believers with metaphors and images, it remains the legacy of the last century of scientific research.
                From a biological point of view, the construction of a living fragment was realized as a result of self-organization processes using the genetic code. The biological design is often far from optimal. But this is for obvious reasons.


                WHY  DIDN'T  MONKEYS  BECOME  HUMANS?

                Many biologists have come to believe in the exceptional ability of genetics to explain all evolutionary changes. Some biologists began to think so a hundred years ago, when Darwinism seemed superfluous to them, was perceived as a relic of “the romantic era of sailing ships and belief in the miraculous power of natural selection” (W. Bateson, 1914).
                Darwinism, with its doctrine of natural selection, was contrasted with genetics as "the exact doctrine of heredity." At the same time, geneticists initially believed that all information about the body was recorded in the genes. Reduction of all relationships generated by life to genetics, and then to molecular biology, i.e. to chemistry is not true, in fact. As the complexity of living objects increases, new interactions arise between them, which did not exist before. Relationships arise at each new level of organization of matter.
                When two merchants exchange their products, they do not need money, nor a central bank, nor bankers with their commissions, nor a tax office. But when everyone without exception participates in the exchange process, then a need arises and structures appear that did not exist before, but which become in demand.
                Genes are not the building blocks of a multicellular organism that contain all the wisdom of life, as some imagine. It is not the genes themselves that are important for the organism, but the result of their work. Proteins are the result of their work.
                Although each cell has a complete set of genes, only those genes will be read in it, and those proteins that are part of the reading protein complex (enzymes) of this cell will be built. Enzymes recognize genes that contain information about the structure of themselves.
                Promoters (gene control sequences), which receive information from signaling cells that translate information about the environment around the cell, can block the reading of a gene, or vice versa, stimulate its reading. Proteins are used not only to build organ tissues, but also participate in regulatory processes in the body, being in many cases hormones produced by various organs.
                Hormones are biologically active substances that, at low concentrations, show great activity, which have a regulating effect on metabolism and physiological functions of the body. Hormones are proteins produced by genes, but with the participation of signals from the external environment. This means that hormones have an environmental impact.
                In addition, it has been relatively recently established that the external environment affects the very DNA molecule carrying genes. For example, DNA methylation makes it difficult for enzymes to read (transcribe) information from genes. The external environment does not affect the genes themselves, but by changing the transcription factors, changes the results of the genes.
                If the pages in the book are not readable, then the effect for the reader is the same as for the missing pages. Page illegibility is a transcription factor. This changes the process of inheritance. These changes are called epigenetic inheritance. Once again we are convinced that genes in the activity of the organism participate only as elements of regulation, and do not act as all knowing commanders in advance.
                The emerging complexity of multicellular organisms is giving rise to new control systems to maintain homeostasis.
 Such control systems include a system for regulating the behavior of a multicellular organism based on the structures of the MEM brain. She is naturally not independent. It is the outer loop of the control system, which takes into account signals from the inner loop with gene regulation, as well as environmental conditions and experience gained in the course of life and work.
 Many complex psychological processes can be explained by the participation of MEMs in the management of behavior and thinking. These processes cannot be reduced to one genetic regulation.
                Our senses are involved in controlling behavior through the brain, not through genes. Complex stabilizing feedbacks are created for this control system. On the other hand, it should be remembered that this new system relies on the already created numerous systems of the body of a lower level, interacts with them.
                The behavior of a wolf cannot be the same as the behavior of a lion, because there is a great difference in their morphology, although the one and the other are predators.
               
                In the book "Sociobiology: A New Synthesis" E.O. Wilson asks:
                "What features of the environment prompted hominids to adapt differently than other primates and begin their unique evolutionary path?"
                I believe that insufficient morphological adaptation on the one hand and developed brain structures on the other have created an opportunity for great apes to take a different path of adaptation through behavior change.
                From a general consideration of evolution, it is clear that it is impossible to indicate all the reasons that led us to this particular path of evolution. The uniqueness of the human path of evolution is that:

 first, evolution occurs due to adaptations of behavior, and not morphology;
 
 secondly, other replicators are used. These are not genes, but MEMs - functional states of several connected brain cells of neurons.

                If we consider the species Homo Sapiens as underdeveloped, in the sense of morphology, primates who found it difficult to occupy a traditional ecological niche for their habitat, then the selection pressure in the presence of developed brain structures led this species to an intensive development of the mind, which helped the species to survive in difficult and hostile conditions.
                All primates are capable of learning by imitation, but they cannot create a numerous system of customs and traditions. This does not allow them to inherit culture, their knowledge acquired during their lifetime is not inherited as widely as in human societies, and cultural evolution for them ended in a dead end.
                It was also difficult for our species to survive on this path of cultural evolution. Even 50 thousand years ago, there were about 6 species of great apes on Earth that could create their own civilizations. But this path was not easy. As a result of natural selection, only one of our species has survived to this day, which managed to create a civilization.
                Our evolutionary path was not monotonous, constantly ascending. Civilizations were created and collapsed. The last great civilization - the Roman Empire collapsed under the onslaught of the Huns. A new civilization emerged from scattered tribes in Europe over 2000 thousand years. It spread to America and merged with the Asian civilization. It is difficult to say what her future fate will be. 
                Eusocial insects have had more than 100 million years to advance along the path of social evolution, which, however, cannot be called cultural. But they have achieved a lot along the way.


                MEMS  FND  ALZHEIMER'S  DISEASE.

                MEMs are programs functioning in the brain; they have their own "hardware base" in the form of neurons connected into complex networks by dendrites and axons (processes of neurons). The brain is a biological supercomputer with a huge number of parallel-working nuclei. Nuclei are brain cells (neurons) with genes in the nucleus, just like in other cells in the body.
                Neurons are specialized cells created for situational control of the entire multicellular organism in accordance with information received from the senses, accumulated and systematized by the brain.
                If translated into technical language, it turns out that in a multicellular organism there are control loops with state sensors and adaptive regulators to control the entire organism.
                Nowhere is a plan for building an organism recorded, but it is being built. Each system operates under the control of information from genes and the external environment, and the result is obtained by itself. When a failure occurs in such a complex process, then selection allows the marriage to be disposed of at every stage of the construction of the organism.
                The peculiarity of the control system of a multicellular organism is that the regulators themselves are not foreign structures, but consist of living cells with the same genes in the nucleus as in other cells of this organism. Neurons can be thought of as “two-story cells”. Downstairs "in the stoker" chemical reactions are going on, protein molecules are being built, and "on the second floor" neurons exchange information with each other using electrochemical signals. The exchange of information is carried out not at the level of genes as in ontogenesis, but at the level of cells.
                Regulators (neuronal complexes) work in a chemical environment capable of releasing neurotransmitters (activity stimulants), which causes a change in the work of the regulators themselves, which means that this environment puts pressure on the development of the body's behavior.
                It is known from experience that over time, all structures will collapse. To maintain the functioning of a system (a multicellular organism in this case), its parts must be renewed by replacing cells, as is the case with all other cells of the body. It is not difficult to imagine this replacement for the complex of neurons that support innate MEMs, since they are created by genes and can be updated "on the fly." At the same time, the initial information recorded on them with the help of genes, which constitutes the content of innate MEMs, will also be updated. After all, all the cells of our organs are renewed in a similar way in the process of life.
                But it is impossible to update without loss of information the neurons that store mental information, the neurons on which cultural MEMs function. Indeed, with such an update (replacing old neurons with new ones), the information received during life will be lost. Genes can form new neurons to replace old ones that have lost their functionality. But since, apparently, there is no mechanism for rewriting information that is a reflection of life experience into newly created brain cells (neurons), this information will be lost. And replacing old memory cells with new, but empty ones will be a disaster for the body, since it makes a person an idiot, a person without experience. And if you do not update the neurons that have lost their functionality, the result will be approximately the same.
                When replacing, as well as when neurons lose their working capacity, cultural MEMs will experience changes that affect behavior, which is actually observed in old age. As the mental information is lost, the behavior of the elderly shifts towards the behavior of children who do not yet possess such mental information.
                Such a replacement of neurons in ancient historical periods was not relevant for humans, since during the allotted natural life time of the organism (this is 25-35 years), neurons performed their functions quite well. In the prehistoric era, a person could not live longer in a hostile environment, in conditions where food must be obtained every day, and at the same time there is a possibility of getting injuries that, in the absence of medicine, turned out to be fatal. He could not live a long life as a modern pensioner. Life was limited to difficult living conditions.
                Man in the current era has exceeded his natural life expectancy by 2-3 times. Therefore, neurons at the end of life already fail. This manifests itself as Alzheimer's disease. Plaques appear in the brain, which they try to fight. But the question is fundamental. Neurons have a limited lifespan and cannot be replaced for these reasons. Therefore, you should not dream of an average life expectancy of 150 years, because people at the end of such a life will look very sad.


                WHY  ARE  PARASITES  NEEDED?  SAKKULINA.

                This is another wrong question. The question "WHY?" can be put before the constructor, not before the evolution. Evolution has no goal.   
                All living things, starting with the protozoa, live in varying degrees of interaction with each other. There is not a single species that exists on its own. An individual's behavior is not always the way it should be, based on the concepts of genetics, to maximize his own genetic well-being: it can maximize the genetic well-being of someone else, in our case, a symbiont of a parasite.
             Symbiosis refers to the relationship that develops between the host species and its cohabitants - symbiont species. Roommates are helpful, neutral, and parasitic.

            Symbionts significantly alter the evolutionary dynamics of the host species.
Consider symbionts - parasites, those that live off the host. This is not a rare natural phenomenon, but an everyday occurrence. How to explain the approval of the existence of such creatures by selection?
              If there is an ecological niche for existence, there is a contender for it, then selection begins to work, forming a contender. If a niche turns out to be unsuitable for an applicant, then it disappears under the influence of negative selection.
           If he settles with the owner, then changes occur in the behavior of the owner. Sometimes significant, sometimes not so much.

                In the Far East, in the Sea of Okhotsk and near Kamchatka, fishermen hunt decapod crab. Crab products are highly valued and reach $ 50 per kilogram, which is 5 times more expensive than meat.
          The crab is a predator, devouring mainly mollusks, various crustaceans, polychaete worms. The hard chitinous cover covering the body of the crab is periodically shed during the molt, and at this time the animal grows in size.
              Although the crabs are protected by a chitinous shell, they have many enemies who are not averse to feasting on them. These are, first of all, bottom and bottom fish (cod, gobies, rays, etc.), as well as some species of marine mammals. The crab larvae, which he scatters into the bottom current, are eaten almost entirely by fish, including such valuable commercial fish as pink salmon, chum salmon and sockeye salmon.
Males reach sexual maturity at 8 - 10 years, and sometimes live up to 20 years. By this time, the width of the shell reaches 20 - 25 cm, and the weight is 3-5 kg.
                In all habitats, the decapod crab is parasitized by the sacculina root-headed cancer, which causes parasitic castration. Weakened due to the disease, males do not reach fishing condition.
SACCULINA (Sacculina) - genus of barnacles which are sembionts - parasites for decapod crab.
                Their development takes place in several stages. Having hatched from an egg, the larva undergoes 2 larval transformations in the sea and after them must find a young crab. Those larvae that have not found the crab turn out to be food for the fish.
              When a female larva finds a male crab, attaches to it, avoiding the fate of being eaten, its entire body with legs is discarded, and a thorn forms on its head, which pierces the crab's covers. Through this hollow spine, the female sacculina enters the body cavity of the crab in the form of a microscopic accumulation of cells. The cells settle on the surface of the digestive tract and divide, forming the body of the parasite with tapered outgrowths that entwine the internal organs of the crab.

 
               These outgrowths, reminiscent of the roots of a tree, penetrate all organs, absorb nutrients, and even go into the eye stalks of the crab. Even the genitals of the crab are destroyed, i.e. it is castrated. (Recent studies have shown that it is not castration that occurs, but a sex change in the crab.)
                In this case, the hormonal background of the crab changes. Males acquire the external features of females and lag far behind in growth from healthy individuals. They begin to take care of the offspring, but not their own offspring, but the parasite - sacculina.
               The second part of the sacculina is attached from the outside to the belly of the crab, to the carapace and is connected to the root part with a cord (such as an umbilical cord). At the site of attachment to the abdomen of the crab, the sacculina forms a dense growth, in which, over time, a tiny hole opens for mating. When a free-swimming male sacculina finds a crab, and, crawling along the body of the crab, finds this hole in an infected individual of the crab, discards most of its body and penetrates into the said hole. Further, through a narrow channel inside the female, it arrives at the place and for the rest of his life (both his and the partner's) will be engaged in the production of sperm, constantly fertilizing eggs.
                Fertilized eggs hatch in the sac-like outgrowth of the female's body, which is located on the underside of the host crab's shell - just where the abdominal legs are located on which the female crab hatches their own eggs.
                The crab, not realizing that it came under the control of the sacculina, it owes to the change in hormonal levels after the change in its sex, takes care of the eggs of the sacculina as if it were its own, carefully caring for its egg sac. Then the eggs, after ripening, are scattered by the crab into the sea, as is customary with crabs.
               The crab sows its own parasites. This is a radical change in behavior. The crab acts on behalf of the parasite. True, he does not sing patriotic songs at the same time.
                The adult sacculina never sheds, is devoid of the oral opening and intestines. Why does she need a mouth, if she sucks out all the food with the help of her growths-roots from the crab and even leaves her secretions to be thrown away by the crab.
These are the "incongruities" that evolution allows itself. But this does not mean that in cultural evolution we have to put up with this.
                Evolutionary changes will be aimed at developing resistance to the parasite. Moreover, other types of crabs are not infected with sacculina, which means they have some adaptations.
               
                The parasite and the host are always different species. Only man is involved in social evolution. Here the division is not based on morphological characteristics, but on mentality.
                Mentality is stratified in the social cells of society in which a person is located, and from this point of view, these are already different castes (division of people according to mentality). This is no longer biological, but cultural evolution, in which the possibility of parasitic relations within society appears.

                In the process of social evolution, many groups (subspecies) have emerged that are capable of parasitizing on the body of society, but it (society) does not always realize this, throws caps into the air, joyfully greeting the leaders.
                And when he feels discomfort (lower living standards, problems of pensions, health care, etc.), he attributes it to external circumstances, which suddenly appeared so unexpectedly. Talk begins about the Washington Regional Committee, about the enemy encirclement, about the fifth column. In short, everyone is guilty, except for those who actually ruled and who led to this.