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In class on Tuesday, we discussed how the evolutionary theory that Mayr describes in his book, since he thinks he has found the “truth” about evolution, is non-narrative (static).  In fact the theory of evolution is more of a narrative, ever changing.  This got me thinking about what the future and its more accurate “summary of observations,” due to numerous amounts of experiments testing the theory of evolution, will bring to the ever evolving story of how organisms have evolved. 

Once upon a time, many people believed that animals and plants were placed on the earth by an ever powerful being.  They were placed on an earth where life did not evolve, and where there was no such thing as genetic mutations.  This theory was based on their “summary of observations.”  It seemed to them that there was no change to the life on earth, since evolution occurs over millions of years, so their predictions appeared to be correct.

Although I have never witnessed evolution, I trust that the evolutionary theory is “more less wrong” than the story of all of life being placed on this earth, due to studying about others’ “summary of observations,” and looking at the fossil record.  So essentially we have produced a theory that is more “less wrong” than our ancestors.  Perhaps our predecessors will say the same about us.  What if, in the future, our idea of evolution is so more wrong that it is rejected, as our ancestors’ ideas have been?

Andrea Zambetti