Human Evolution and Progress
The process of evolution appears as obviously progressive. The earliest organisms on earth were no more complex than today's bacteria. Three billion years later, their descendants include orchids, ants, sharks, alligators, and eagles, which have appeared successively over several hundred million years, and our species, Homo sapiens, which came into existence within the last 200,000 years. But what do we mean when we say that there has been progress in the evolutionary process? Organisms may be progressive with respect to some attributes, but regressive with respect to others. For example, bacteria are able to synthesize all their components; human beings depend on other organisms. Moreover, most evolutionary lineages became extinct. Change, evolution, and directionality are concepts related to, but importantly different from the concept of progress. The concept of progress implies directional change toward a better state or condition. It contains two elements: one descriptive, that directional change has taken place; the other evaluative, that the change represents an improvement or amelioration. According to the continuity of the direction of change, progress may be uniform or not. According to the scope of the sequence under consideration, progress may be general or particular. There are many criteria by which particular forms of net progress have occurred in evolution. Among the most meaningful is the ability of the organism to obtain and process information about the environment, which in multicellular animals is mediated by the nervous system. The ability to perceive the environment and to integrate, coordinate, and react flexibly to what is perceived has attained its highest degree in the human species.
