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It’s been awhile since I posted a hardcore science article, so forgive me if the pendulum has swung too far back the other way. I’ve been reading up on a new hypothesis about evolved dependency and I realized that the hypothesis being used to discuss microorganisms could also apply to advertising. I mean, when you think about it, social networking behaves like a microorganism, but I’m jumping ahead.
Let’s start with the basics: A new hypothesis posed by a University of Tennessee, Knoxville, associate professor and colleagues could be a game changer in the evolution arena. The hypothesis suggests some species are surviving by discarding genes and depending on other species to play their hand. The groundbreaking “Black Queen Hypothesis” got its name from the game of Hearts. In Hearts, the goal is to avoid “winning” the Queen of Spades (the Black Queen), which is worth a lot of points. Subsequently, players allow others to take the high-point card while they enjoy low-score tallies.
This same premise applies in evolution, the scientists say. According to the hypothesis, evolution pushes microorganisms to lose essential functions when there is another species around to perform them. This idea counters popular evolutionary thinking that living organisms evolve by adding genes rather than discarding them.
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