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Evolution - Blog Posts
Evolutionary Learning: PTSD and CPTSD Symptoms.
Events that cause us fear, suffering, and threat to our lives leave a strong, everlasting mark. Either consciously or subconsciously, what is recorded plays back over and over again given the correct environment that makes the connection and presses the play button. We have recorded some information, but not all of it is of happy memories.
I was fascinated with the fact that I could record something on a cassette tape when I was little. I found it amazing, and those in my family did not share the same complete astoundment that I felt when I discovered that I was able to record sound, my voice and the voices in my surroundings on a cassette tape.
Now much older, I have decided that there is a recording nature in literally everything, from various crystals to the tiniest atoms, and the main point that I am getting to, our brains.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is the unwanted intrusion of some of the more challenging recordings that we have collected along the way. It isn’t the upsurge of happy memories, but rather the deeply ingrained bad memories and traumas that we might prefer to ignore or forget.
Sometimes in PTSD, emotions become uncontrollable, which is the distinguishing factor that makes it Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. CPTSD makes it even more difficult to navigate the world, let alone face and move on from the memories that keep intruding.
Every episode pops up like a “surprise motherfucker” moment. Choice in shelving it for later on? forget it. PTSD and CPTSD is instant like that, and there is no going back until some sort of retreat and processing can be taken.
I sometimes like to think of PTSD and CPTSD as an overloaded cassette tape. This idea does not work out in rational reality since you cannot overload recordings on a cassette, it just stops each side, but the recording nature of the human brain is different. It certainly has much more capacity than a cassette tape, and in some ways, it may well be infinite, until physicality for the brain ceases to exist at least.
Studies show that predatory induced fear causes PTSD like changes in the brains and behaviour of wild animals. The article goes on to say that:
“Retaining a powerful enduring memory of a life-threatening predator encounter is thus clearly evolutionarily beneficial if it helps the individual avoid such events in the future3,4,8. Contemplating this, in light of the many PTSD-like changes manifest in laboratory rodents in response to predator-induced fear19, has prompted a growing number of biomedical researchers to propose3,5,6,7,9,10,11 that “PTSD is the cost of inheriting an evolutionarily primitive mechanism that considers survival more important than the quality of one’s life”12. In this view, PTSD-like changes in the brain and behaviour are not unnatural or “maladaptive”, but are rather evolutionary adaptations which entail costs, such as “hypervigilance”12,19,20 and the avoidance of trauma-related cues19, that provide the benefit of increasing the probability of survival, by increasing the likelihood of detecting a life-threatening danger (hypervigilance), and reducing the probability of encountering one (avoidance).”
Powerful memories that do not let us forget are the one’s that will help keep us safe in future times. Sometimes PTSD and CPTSD is making a faulty connection, because the situation that we are in can replay events so vividly where there really is no harm to come, but in the event of future run in’s with exceptionally predatory people, of which there are many + more growing with the generational learning created through the use of social media, PTSD and CPTSD serve as an evolutionary stage in learning that will absolutely help me in moving onward in my life at least.
The ability to record things is amazing, in whatever medium. I now have a new understanding of PTSD and CPTSD and how we learn by what we live. There is cost, but I am more than happy to pay for what I need.
Be happy :-)
Book haul!
The other day, my brother and I went to lunch on Main Street, and I absolutely had to stop at my favorite local bookstore.
Where I found these:
I already tore through Invitation to Anthropology, and I absolutely cannot wait to read The Human Odyssey!
I also went to the college bookstore and got 3/4 of my textbooks for the semester.
Needless to say, I am excited to dive into these babies.
Scientists have found new evidence confirming that turtles once lived without shells.
The almost-complete fossil dates back 228 million years and is bigger than a double bed.
It was discovered in the Guizhou province of south west China
Dr Nicholas Fraser, keeper of natural sciences at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, said: “It looked like a turtle but then lacked everything of the shell underneath and also the one on top.”
“It has the scaffolding in place for the shell to go on to but it doesn’t have the shell.”
Continue Reading.
Chameleon colours ‘switched by crystals’:
Swiss researchers have discovered how chameleons accomplish their vivid colour changes: they rearrange the crystals inside specialised skin cells.
It was previously suggested that the reptiles’ famous ability came from gathering or dispersing coloured pigments inside different cells. But the new results put it down to a “selective mirror” made of crystals. They also reveal a second layer of the cells that reflect near-infrared light and might help the animals keep cool. Reptiles make colours in two ways: they have cells full of pigment for warm or dark colours, but brighter blues and whites come from light bouncing off physical elements like these crystals: so-called “structural colours”. These colours can also be mixed. A vibrant green might arise from a structural blue overlaid by yellow pigment.
a Thing about me is that i'll have moments where I randomly look up from whatever I'm doing and observe the many objects in my surroundings and think, "wow, this was all because of thumbs"
negative evolution
humanity breads negative evolution
it reverses everything that is natural and right
turns everything into a race and a
competition
to be the best
better than the rest
which is untenable
because
without the rest of humanity
you are zero
Spec Evo Challenge: Aquatic April - Day 3 (Star)
I dont know much about sea stars and didn´t know what other animal I could make with the word star (and the timeframe)
The Barnacles Star (Balaenaasteroidea Caeruleuma) Is an parasetic starfish that will attach themselfs to whales or other large marine animals with their spiked legs and then proceed to peel of and eat their skin.
--Source: Reddit--
Spec Evo Challenge: Aquatic April - Day 2 (Bug)
--The second entry for the Aquatic April challenge--
The Ever Youth Dragonfly Is unique among Its kind, when other Dragonfly species only spend their juvenile stage fully aquatic,
The Ever Youth Dragonfly never developes lungs and thus remains In water for Its entire life.
It posses sturdy hairs on Its legs making them work like flippers.
These hairs are also found on their back acting like a dorsal fin
and to top It of they posses an extention of their abdomen that works like a fluke.
--Source: Reddit--
Spec Evo Challenge: Aquatic April - Day 1 (Producer)
This month Im attending an Spec Evo challenge. :D
--Source: R/Speculativeevolution--
I cant ensure I´ll be posting every day, but I´ll try anyways.
For day 1 I came up with a species of Kelp called the Keelp (Anguillapiscisalgarum Sp.).
The Keelp has the coloration of eels to fend of herbivores that might try to eat It.
This unique coloration although also come at the cost of not being able to do very efficient photosynthese, thus the Keelp has an symbiotic relationship with many aquatic plants.
The plant provides the Keelp with nutrients and In return the Keelp keeps them safe from plant eaters.
Treasure The Rodent - Mausbies Of The Late Origocene
(20 Million Years P.E.)
The Middle Origocene saw the rise of the Mausbies, small rodent analogues, In the niche of seedeaters or small scale omnivores.
But now In the Late Origocene the Mausbies saw alot more diversity trying to cover still avaible niches or make a living In new Habitats.
The Beavalis are descendants of the Rattuffs which have adapted to an semi-aquatic lifestyle.
Similiar to the Shell-Fishers 10 Million years prior they have adapted an mechanism that allows them to seal their pouch when underwater, preventing their joeys from drowning.
The Greater Beavali (Flumenmus Nonaustralianus) Is one of the more basal species.
Their strong incisors are perfectly adapted for crushing the hard shells of mussels and crustaceans, but also for breaking wooden bark. Similiar to earthern Beavers, the Greater Beavali builds dams which can controll the river streams, giving them the perfect conditions to build their nests, find and store food as well as giving them an safe place to rest.
The Grey Bilbypus (Macrotisornithorhynchus Griseus) Is an fellow widespread Beavali species, It posses long sensitive whiskers which It uses to find arthropods and other goods hidden under the river bed.
Another clade of Rattuff are the Hampters, as their name suggest they have heavily converged with earthern hamsters.
They posses an small, round body with an short tail, but those are not all features they took from the earthern hamster, as they also have the hamsters signature trait, cheek pouches.
Their flexible cheeks help them to hord all of the goods they find, saving time foraging, which makes them visible to predators.
The Field Hampter (Pseudocricetus Ager) Is an plains dwelling small-scale herbivore feeding on seeds, roots, vegetables and various grasses. Field Hampters are one of the few unsocial Mausby species, not forming family colonies and only interacting with another when mating.
The Greater Dwarf Hampter (Nainuspseudocricetus Maxillutus) Is pretty similiar to Its larger cousin, although they are not herbivores but rather omnivores, eating seeds, roots and insects.
They also havent completly abondend their colonies, althought the family bonds are very loose and tend to fall apart quickly.
Talking about unsocial Mausbies, we have the Terrisquis, an clade of Squruffies, solitary Mausbies that by now have become incredibly territorial and even straight up aggressive animals.
Similiar to the Hampters the Terrisqui have found an way to take their food to go, but instead of developing cheek pouches, they used an feature they already possed and have just modified It a bit, as the Terrisquis use their marsupial-pouches to store their food.
This alsomeans that both the males and the females posses pouches to store food, we see something similiar In earthern Yapoks, marsupials In which both males and females posses pouches.
Also similiar to the Yapok they posses an mechanism that allows them to seal their pouch, the same Shell-Fishers and the Beavalis posses, this prevents their food from accidentally falling out of their pouch.
The Colorbark Terrisqui (Colossciurus Fuscusanrufus) Is an pretty basal member of the Terrisqui family.
The females sport an camouflaging brown color, while the males are alot more eye-stinging. As territorial as the Terrisquis are, the males have evolved an brighter fur color to make their presence clear to rivals. The males also posses the ability to make the fur on their back stand up, In turn making them appear larger to predators and rivals.
Back to the more peacefull and social creatures, we have the Wabillies. Plains dwelling descendants of the Jerbaroos.
Normally the desert Is the kingdom of the Jerbaroos, with the plains dwelling individualls standing In the shadow of their relatives, but the Wabillies managed to stay relevant amongst the competetion.
As of right now the Wabillies are the largest Mausbies to ever exist, turns out, living In the plains among swarms of Pterobats of prey, being big has Its benefits.
The Plains Wabilly (Subterranotamacropus Fodiens) Is the most common species of the rather small Wabilly family.
They live In huge family colonies and burrow equally huge, complex burrows. They are omnivores eating whatever they can find, vegetables, seeds, insects and even the occasional small marsupial.
Macroterra - The Middle Origocene
10 Million Years P.E.
