NOTE: The following text is an excerpt (adapted for the website) from the introduction episode to the podcast, titled (EF2) Intro: Life is a Near Death Experience Welcome to The EFP (click if you’d prefer to listen to the full one-hour thought experiment instead…). You can also find the relevant references on the EF2 Show Notes page.
What does it mean to Evolve Faster?
If you’ve read the About Evolve Faster page, you know the foundation of this platform sits on the idea that both our individual and collective human nature are changeable. How to change my life? If you’re asking the question you also wonder if it is possible at all. It’s safe to say that I’m certain it can, as I’ve started creating an entire platform around this idea. I’ve wasted a lot of time if it can’t…
Which brings me to the name of the podcast and platform. Evolution is the perfect metaphor for the change that’s possible—over billions of years and counting, evolution is continuously showing its flexibility and power. Now, stick with me here for three representative examples from evolution which showcase the metaphor’s potential. And, maybe, just a little comedic relief…
Evolution as A Metaphor to Change Your life
First off, lizard penises, of all things, actually evolve faster to stay ahead of mating needs–6x faster than other traits. Scientists speculate that females’ requiring shapes that better fit or, umm, stimulate, might be the reason for the rapid evolution. I’m not sure how certain this is, but this implies that Tinder for Lizards must be a pretty nasty and competitive marketplace.
The second example is a creature called the
And finally, scientists have recently edited the genetic sequences of human embryos using the CRISPR biological gene editing tool. The staggering impact of this is that these modifications will lead to inheritable changes in the human genome.
In other words… lizard penises and other examples are proof you can cheat evolution and change your life selectively faster. Species can evolve uniquely in parallel to others, and it’s possible to rewrite the way evolution itself works. So if this is all possible as a species, it is possible as individuals. This is what it means to Evolve Faster as a metaphor for personal change through a practice of applied philosophy and psychology. Which is definitely good news for anyone who wonders how to change their life.
Philosophy, Psychology & Practice
Philosophy gives us dozens of thinkers who dissected just about every issue ad nauseum. But most don’t bother to look because reading philosophy can feel so esoteric and impractical. Nevertheless, philosophy provides a toolkit of conceptual weapons that you can use to bend your neuroplastic mind in new directions.
Psychology is another side of this mental coin. The critical and rational thinking practices of philosophy are less useful without an understanding of our psychology as shaped by evolution, society, and cultures. The biases and contradictions within each brain are landmines that can either protect you… or blow your metaphorical legs off. But the more you learn about them, the smaller the chances you’ll step on one get.
And finally, the third pillar is practice. You will struggle to modify your philosophical outlook and psychological faculties without a practice to incrementally upgrade both. Sadly, this isn’t something you can just read once, repost to your social media accounts and then just wake up changed the next day. You first need to apply challenging life experimentation and thought experiments force you to challenge your worldview, face the resultant cognitive dissonance and then rewrite your narrative one day, and page, at a time.
Philosophy, psychology, and practice… these are the pillars we’ll be experimenting with to try and Evolve Faster. I’ll try to dissolve a little bit of all three into the essence of each podcast that I write. I won’t always get it right. But each day I try is a step closer to answering the nagging “can I change my life” question.
How To Live: Change DOesn’t Come Easy
Changing yourself with lasting effect is not easy. These challenges, traps, and hindrances have slowly baked into our shared human nature for hundreds of thousands of years. So the point of all this philosophical and psychological investigation, therefore, will be to work towards a basis of better questions with which to investigate being human.
With better questions, you can consider a practice of life experimentation to challenge and broaden the boundaries you may not even realize are constructed around you. This work is also foundational investigation for books, movies, or any other thinking tools I plan to create to progress the greater evolve faster journey.
So if you’re still reading, I hope you’re interested in seeing how deep this rabbit hole goes together. You can start by supporting the Evolve Faster platform in any of the ways you feel comfortable by going to the Subscribe page. Your help is greatly appreciated!