This piece was largely driven by a personal revelation through my studies in biology and philosophy, and more specifically, the book Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. The cladogram is able to be rearranged in any way without discontinuity. This ability to shuffle the books without losing continuity demonstrates the inherent purposelessness of evolution; there is no objective “better” that evolution is trying to achieve, only a subjective “fitness” according to an organism’s ever-changing surroundings. Evolution has no destiny, it could have turned out any other way, provided different conditions. Essentially, evolution could be described as a big game of chance, although almost all adults that I surveyed with the following question: “Do you believe humans are the best and most advanced species living on this planet?” responded with an undeniable “yes.” If those surveyed were to interact with this cladogram, however, they would find that even if they managed to put the book containing “Homo sapiens” on the top shelf, there would still be lines projecting up and away from us, indicating that evolution is still a working force and that there will be perhaps even more advanced species after us.
