Deep Story

EP.4- Darwin's Hidden Journey: Evolution and the Rebirth of Progress

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What if Charles Darwin’s story is just the beginning? Discover the hidden 20-year journey behind his revolutionary ideas, from his mysterious illnesses to his obsession with barnacles. 

The Reluctant Mr. Darwin: An Intimate Portrait of Charles Darwin and the Making of His Theory of Evolution (Great Discoveries)
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Speaker 1:

Welcome to Deep Story. A Darwin right. This guy leaves one of the biggest mysteries in the history of science. What did he do for over 20 years? I mean, he finishes his round the world voyage in 1836, comes back to London and doesn't publish on the origin of species until 1859. 23 years, what was he doing? Waiting for broadband to be invented.

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Now people have theories. One popular one is the man was just sick, like really, really sick. His time on the HMS Beagle, five years at sea, completely wrecked him. Think about it five years stuck on a boat, rolling waves, bad food and no Wi-Fi. The previous captain of that ship couldn't handle the isolation, shot himself, true story. And Darwin wasn't even on the Beagle as a scientist. Nope, he was the captain's conversation buddy, that's it. Imagine your only job being talk to this guy so he doesn't lose it. But those five years Brutal.

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By the time Darwin got back to London it was like he collected the world's most complete set of diseases Headaches, stomach itches, nausea, you name it. He had it. He was basically one bad symptom away from being a WMD search result. At one point the man was so sick he could only work one or two hours a day. Before collapsing. He was even too afraid to attend social events. He wrote in his diary something like I'm scared I'll die halfway there. That's a level of introvert we can all kind of respect. But here's the weird part For someone who's supposedly too sick to work, he still did a ton of stuff. He moved to the countryside, raised pigeons, grew orchids and became the world's foremost expert on barnacles yeah, barnacles. He even wrote a four-volume epic about them. Four volumes on barnacles, yeah, barnacles. He even wrote a four-volume epic about them. Four volumes on barnacles. The man had priorities, just apparently not writing on the origin of species.

Speaker 1:

Now some folks think Darwin was just over-prepping, like a grad student with too many drafts. He kept experimenting, tweaking his ideas because he thought his theory wasn't ready. And, to be fair, he did have a big problem, a flashy problem, a peacock problem. Darwin once wrote the sight of a peacock's tail makes me sick, Literally nauseous. Why? Because it totally messed up his natural selection theory. You know survival of the fittest. But that that tail, oh, it's not fit, it's a fitness disaster. It wastes energy, makes it harder to fly and is basically a neon sign for predators saying dinner is served. So why would evolution create something so well ridiculous. The answer came years later.

Speaker 1:

In his second book, the Descent of man, darwin realized there's more to survival than just dodging predators and finding food. Enter sexual selection. Basically, it doesn't matter if you can out run a tiger or find all the snacks if the ladies think you're ugly. Somewhere along the line there was probably a short-tailed peacock, just thriving, fast agile, living his best life, fast agile, living his best life. But in the lady peacock's eyes, total loser. No dates, no babies, extinction Turns out. Evolution isn't just about the strongest or the fastest. Sometimes it's about what makes you look good enough to swipe right.

Speaker 1:

So here's the big question why did Darwin sit on his On the Origin of Species for over 20 years? I mean, we know he eventually wrote it, but then why did he suddenly rush to publish it? What was going on in those 20 years? Was he just binging Downton Abbey before it even existed? The truth is, I didn't get it either. But the deeper I dove into Darwin's theory of evolution, the more I started to understand his struggle. And let me tell you, the man wasn't just working on science, he was wrestling with the meaning of existence. His theory wasn't just groundbreaking, it was so crushing. You see, most of us think the controversy of Darwin's theory is that he said humans weren't created by God but evolved from monkeys. Shocking right, but no. Shocking right but no. That wasn't even his idea. People had been saying stuff like that for ages. Darwin's own grandpa yeah, grandpa Darwin was already talking about evolution, about how species change and how they aren't divinely created. Even Lamarck you know, the giraffe stretches its neck guy had theories like this. So what was Darwin's big idea? Darwin's real contribution was this Evolution has no direction.

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Non-zilch-zip Species don't control their destiny. That's the real bombshell. He wasn't just saying, hey, we came from monkeys. He was saying guess what? Nature doesn't care about you.

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In Darwin's view, nature is like this cold, emotionless, grim reaper with scissors snipping away at anything that doesn't make the cut, at anything that doesn't make the cut. You look outside and it's all birds chirping and fish swimming, like this peaceful, happy planet. But zoom out a few million years and it's just a massacre Dinosaurs Snipped, trilobites Snipped. Nature doesn't smile, it doesn't cry, it's just there holding the scissors, waiting for the next species to mess up. Every species gets chewed up, turned to dust, then recycled into something new. It's like an endless brutal game of. So you think you can survive. But here's the kicker no species controls its fate. No amount of hard work or positivity is gonna make you immune to those scissors. And that's the real kicker.

Speaker 1:

Darwin wasn't just saying God didn't make you. He was saying you're not in control of anything. You're not in control of anything. None of us are Nature's running the show. That's why Darwin was so torn up. He wasn't just killing God, he was killing hope. People like to think we're marching toward a brighter, better future, improving ourselves, mastering our destiny, ourselves mastering our destiny.

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But Darwin, he's sitting there sipping tea, writing in his beautifully sarcastic British prose oh you, sweet summer children, you think you're in charge, cute. And here's the crazy part At the same time, darwin's sitting there paralyzed. There's another guy with a big beard in London, just 16 miles away. You know who I'm talking about Karl Marx. Yeah, marx was also shaking things up, but Marx, oh Marx, had the confidence of a guy who just nailed Karok Knight. He's like nailed Karok Knight. He's like I'm changing the world. Humanity has a destiny. Follow me to the promised land. Meanwhile, darwin's over here like yeah, you keep thinking that I'll just sit here, trying not to destroy everyone's will to live.

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That's why Darwin couldn't write for so long. He wasn't just writing a science book, he was unleashing the cold, hard truth of existence. And let's be real, that's not the kind of thing you can just jot down between cups of tea. And here's the thing about Darwin even after publishing his theory of evolution, the attacks on him didn't stop. They're still coming To this day. There are people, scientists even, who say Darwin Nah, he got it wrong. And back in his time, oh, it was a feeding frenzy. Even his best friends, like some of the top scientists in Britain, were like yeah, charles, not sure about this whole evolution thing, because back then evolution wasn't even science, it was just a hypothesis. And, to be fair, it still, technically, is a hypothesis. Let that sink in.

Speaker 1:

But Darwin's ideas freaked people out, especially the folks close to him, his wife. Oh, she was terrified. Before they got married she wrote him this heart-wrenching letter. She's like I love you so much, but your theory it's basically telling God to take a hike. So if we get married and we're happy in this life, are we even gonna see each other in heaven? Darwin kept that letter. Years later he wrote in his diary that sometimes late at night he'd hold that letter, press it to his face and just cry.

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This man was out here questioning if he and his wife would be ghosting each other in the afterlife Heavy stuff. He lived to be 73. And on his deathbed he was like Just give me a simple coffin, nothing fancy. But no, britain wasn't having it. They're like nah Charles, you're going to Westminster Abbey next to Newton, and boom, they put him in this ridiculously fancy coffin, totally ignoring his wishes. The kicker. Right next to him they buried Kelvin, a physicist who spent his whole life hating on Darwin's ideas. Imagine spending eternity lying next to your biggest critic. That's some poetic British awkwardness right there. And, honestly, darwin's grave is kind of symbolic. Here's a guy who made this massive contribution to science, but he's stuck in this coffin. That goes against everything he asked for. He's surrounded by one of the greatest scientists of all time and a dude who thought he was full of it Forever. That's legacy for you.

Speaker 1:

Now let's talk about the other Darwin mystery. He dragged his feet for over 20 years, right? But then, between 1858 and 1859, he just banged out on the origin of species like he was cramming for finals. Why, well, buckle up for some scientific drama.

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In 1858, this younger scientist, alfred Russell Wallace, pops onto the scene. Wallace is this scrappy underdog, super passionate about science but dirt poor. He's out there in the Amazon collecting thousands of specimens, trying to make a name for himself. Thousands of specimens trying to make a name for himself. And just when he's about to ship everything back to England, his boat catches fire. All of it gone. But does he give up? No, he heads to Southeast Asia and starts over collecting more data in the jungles of the Malay archipelago. Then one day, in 1858, wallace gets malaria. He's lying there sweating buckets, probably hallucinating, and by am he has this epiphany about evolution. So what does he do? He writes it all down in three days. Three days, and then he's like Three days. And then he's like huh, who should I send this to? Oh, I don't know, maybe Charles freaking Darwin.

Speaker 1:

Meanwhile Darwin's at home, still sick, still growing orchids and still staring at his empty manuscript. Then this letter from Wallace shows up. Darwin reads it and nearly has a heart attack. Wallace's paper. It's basically on the origin of species, like almost word for word, down to the vocabulary, darwin's 20-year magnum opus, written out by some guy with malaria in three days. So now Darwin's in a crisis.

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He's got two choices. Option one publish Wallace's paper like a good, honorable English gentleman, but then evolution gets credited to Wallace and Darwin's 20 years of slow burn anxiety, totally wasted that's a tough pill to swallow. Wasted that's a tough pill to swallow. Option two snatch the spotlight, publish first and deal with the shame of screwing over a younger scientist. But Darwin's a gentleman, right, he can't do that. So what does he do? He panics, writes letters to his friends like what do I do? Help? And his friends, being very British about it, come up with a compromise. They're like alright, charles, here's the plan. Write a summary of your ideas, something quick, and we'll publish it alongside Wallace's paper. That way you both get credit. Everyone wins Tea and biscuits all around. Darwin's like okay, let's do it ba. He writes to Wallace explaining the plan and Wallace oh Wallace is thrilled. He's like I'd be honored to share credit with you, sir. This is amazing. To share credit with you, sir, this is amazing and just like that.

Speaker 1:

The modern theory of evolution was born out of a malaria fever dream and some good old fashion Victorian diplomacy. So here's the thing Even though Darwin and Wallace's papers were published together in some science journal, it was basically an insider together in some science journal. It was basically an insider deal in the scientific community. No big splash. But Darwin, oh Darwin felt the heat. He was like, okay, this is serious Time to stop messing around with pigeons and orchids. And he went into beast mode. In just one year he cranked out on the origin of species and when it dropped in December 1859, it was like the Harry Potter of science books. First edition sold out instantly. Six reprints in just a few years.

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Darwin was the Beyonce of biology. Now Wallace? Wallace was totally chill about the whole thing. He was like wow, I can't believe I came up with the same idea as Darwin. What an honor. He even wrote a book later called Darwinism.

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Imagine naming your book after someone else's theory. Just to say I'm Team Darwin Forever. That's some British-level humility right there. Compare that to Newton and Leibniz fighting over calculus. Those two went at it like it was the Super Bowl of math. It wasn't just personal, it turned into a fool on England v's France thing and complete with nationalistic drama. Meanwhile Darwin and Wallace were like after you, sir, no, no, after you, sir. That classic British politeness. But here's the real reason. Darwin's theory got so big. The people around him. He had this incredible group of scientists who weren't just talented but also supportive. These guys could argue fiercely. Supportive, these guys could argue fiercely, but they did it with class.

Speaker 1:

Well, mostly take the 1860 debate at Oxford. This was supposed to be the showdown over evolution On one side Darwin's supporters, on the other his critics. But instead of a fiery clash it was surprisingly civil. Well, except for one guy, captain Fitzroy. Remember him, the captain of the HMS Beagle, the guy who brought Darwin along for the ride. Fitzroy shows up, bible in hand, waving it around like it's the mic drop of all mic drops. He's yelling this book, this book. It was a whole scene. But after that nothing much happened. Poor Fitzroy felt so guilty about the whole thing that he later shot himself. Yeah, dark twist.

Speaker 1:

And Darwin, he stayed above it all. He didn't argue, he didn't fight, he just let his ideas do the talking. Meanwhile, his buddy, huxley, darwin's self-proclaimed bulldog, was out there doing all the dirty work. Huxley loved a good debate. His favorite moo was listening quietly, waiting for someone to say something dumb, then pouncing right before tearing into them. He'd smile and say God has delivered you into my hands. And then boom, verbal smackdown. Now, not everyone was a fan. The most vocal critic was this zoologist named Owen. Owen hated Darwin so much that when he became the director of the British Museum, he stuck a giant statue of himself in the main hall. Darwin and Huxley. He shoved their statues into the cafe. That's British revenge for you Subtle but spicy.

Speaker 1:

So what's the takeaway here? Innovation isn't just about being brave. You need the right environment too. If you don't have a community that supports creativity and debate, how are you supposed to come up with anything groundbreaking? Oh, and let's clear up one big misunderstanding about Darwin. People love throwing around the word evolution like it's all him. But here's the thing Darwin barely used the word. It shows up once in on the origin of species at the very end. That's it. And that one little mention yeah, it caused all kinds of trouble.

Speaker 1:

Fast forward, and here come the social Darwinists twisting his theory into survival of the fittest baby. Weak people should just disappear. Guys like Spencer and later Hitler yep that guy. And later Hitler, yep that guy latched onto this idea of evolution as progress, as some kind of purification of humanity. It's like they completely missed the memo that Darwin wasn't talking about moral superiority or destiny. He was just saying, hey, nature's messy and doesn't care about your plans. So here's the deal. Evolution it's not about progress. It's not about climbing some magical ladder to perfection. Darwin himself wrote from all the evidence we've got, there's no such thing as a trend toward progress in evolution. None, zero, zilch. And you know who backed this up.

Speaker 1:

Years later, a guy named Stephen J Goode Goode said if you really look at life on Earth, bacteria are way better at adapting than humans or any of our fancy mammal cousins. Think about it. Bacteria are hardcore. They can survive hundreds of meters underground, hanging out in basalt rock, chilling with no oxygen, thriving off geothermal heat, and they reproduce so fast they make rabbits look like they're on a break. If survival is the game, bacteria are the Michael Jordan of life forms and humans. We can't even make it through a day without bacteria. Fun fact about 10% of your body weight is bacteria and microorganisms. Without them, we're toast. So are we really higher beings compared to bacteria? According to Darwin, not a chance. In fact, the whole idea of progress in evolution, yeah, that's a myth. Darwin wasn't preaching progress, he was saying life just happens da was saying life just happens, da. So why do we have humans, these so-called complex beings.

Speaker 1:

Good called it the drunkard's walk theory. Here's how it works. Imagine a drunk guy trying to walk home. He's wobbling all over the place. On one side of the road is a wall, on the other side a ditch. Where's he gonna end up the ditch? Obviously the wall bounces him back, but the ditch that's game over.

Speaker 1:

Species are like that drunk guy. Evolution has no direction, no goal. Simple organisms like bacteria hit a wall. They can't get any simpler. Meanwhile, the random stumble toward complexity. That's just the ditch we fall into.

Speaker 1:

And the numbers back this up. Humans, mammals, all the fancy stuff A tiny fraction of life on Earth. There are only about 4,000 species of mammals, microorganisms, over a million named species, and that's just the ones we know about. There are probably countless more we haven't even discovered. Most life on earth is simple. The so-called advanced stuff. It's rare. We're basically the weird lottery winners of biology.

Speaker 1:

So if you buy into this drunkard theory, here's the depressing takeaway. Human progress isn't some inevitable march forward, it's a fluke. We're the ultimate cosmic accident and if you think about it, that makes our whole idea of progress kind of sketchy. Right Now. Let's talk about the future. Sure, humans are innovating like crazy, but waiting for us up ahead A few things called technological singularities.

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And these singularities, they could go either way. Best case, immortality, worst case, absolute disaster, like. Imagine this one person with the power to destroy the entire planet. Right now we've got, you know, certain leaders with nukes, but even they can't end the world with one push of a button yet. But fast forward a bit Anti-matter weapons Theoretically, just 30 tons of the stuff delivered on a truck could wipe out Earth. One person could hold the world hostage. Congratulations, we've invented the ultimate supervillain. And if that happens, democracy, freedom, prosperity yeah, those are toast. Instead, we might be looking at a future ruled by the darkest dictator ever. A civilization might not be heading towards some bright utopia, it might be heading into a black hole. So, yeah, maybe don't celebrate Darwin like he's a cheerleader for progress.

Speaker 1:

Darwin's message wasn't raw, raw humanity. It was more like hey, guess what? There's no progress, none, stop kidding yourselves. Goode even said Darwin's theory, after more than a hundred years, still has a lesson we need to kill our arrogance. Humanity is just a tiny twig on a giant tree of life and we could be snapped off at any time. If we can't let go of this delusion of progress, we're not ready to fully understand Darwin's message. But if progress feels like a pipe dream, how do we keep striving for it? The answer's simpler we do it ourselves. Nature isn't gonna help us, the laws of the universe, nope. Even Marx's whole things that don't care about your subjective will idea not gonna save us either. If humanity wants to progress, we've got one shot our own effort. That's it, thus or nothing. Thank you.