Is Natural Selection a paradigm of Normal distribution?
A concept of Biology and a concept of Statistics. How are they even related? Are they basically, the same thing?
Biology- When Charles Darwin being on Her Majesty’s Service, saw the Finches in Galapagos, he didn’t see animals or biology, he saw a pattern. A pattern in which he could find answers to a complex question of evolution. He theorised that Nature benefits the moderators, the averages, the mediocre ones. He theorised a rather basic concept that the ones who adapt, are selected irrespective of their intentions.
Contrary to the popular opinion, the outstanding performers, the extremists were often eliminated. This was because they were too (mainstream? No jk) hard to replicate. The exceptional genotypes produced exceptional phenotypes and hence they were highly demanded. This often led to unstable societal structures and hence, chaos. This was also a primary reason why Monogamy came into the picture in early human civilisations. The most fit and exceptional hunter-gatherers were more desired and hence had more impact on genealogy than the averages. This disparity despite producing fitter individuals created havoc and clustered family structures. As a solution, Monogamy came into picture, which was a trend first but later became a system as Proto-Indo-European civilisations travelled further. Later the system of exterminating the ultra was radicalised and revolutions became a common chapter in the history books. When milk is churned for cream, it is often at the top that the fat is formed. The unwanted traits of the system- an analogy mostly related, but not limited, to such scenarios.
There isn’t much to be said about the bottom dwellers. They were and always will be evicted. A problem to be tackled Philanthropically but to be ignored in terms of Capitalism.
So, biology does the obvious. Evicts the Jocks and Goths alike. It’s the Nerds who prevail. (Who’s laughing now? — This line is sponsored by the Alpha-Nerds.)
Statistics- A few decades before Darwin, Carl Gauss gave a formula for Normal distribution. He was not the first to talk about this as de Moivre, Laplace and Adrian had already worked in this discipline. What makes Gauss’ contribution more relevant is his direct mentioning of the terms and a well-structured formulation which was absent earlier. Although it is important to mention that this is the same Gauss whose Gaussian Flux law was one of the most popular- and scoring- topic for us Science grads in School and it was him who taught us to give no Flux in life.
Having learnt Normal distribution after starting my management degree and having hated Mathematics my whole life, it will be best if I don’t talk about it in terms of formulas as- 1) I am not officially qualified to talk about it and 2) It would make you realise what my shortcomings are which I try to mask under these fancy, long sentences I use and 3) because I dropped out of the programme eventually. So, we shall steer clear from Math formulas and specifically talk in terms of theory because I am adamant that we talk.
The first time I stumbled upon a relationship between these two concepts was when we were doing a numerical calculating the number of defective bulbs produced by a factory. The four main reasons of those defective units being produced were extra filament being used, less filament being used, too much gas being filled up and too less gas being filled in the bulb. Although the reason we were being taught this concept was strictly cost management and how we could be better corporate slaves but one cannot help but associate a relationship between Quantitative genetics and Flaw calculation of these bulbs.
Similar to Natural Selection, in Normal distribution too, the desired population is the one acquiring the median positions in the graph and the extremes are undesired. Coefficient of variations and errors of distribution are calculated based on which data is analysed. The purpose of this is optimisation in manufacturing and sales. Here too, the exceptional products were undesired because they were hard to replicate and disturbed the average run times and hence affected the warranty periods given by the manufacturers.
It is inevitable that we realise the importance of averages and the moderators in a population as they make the most of it. They are the consumers, the laymen, the mob- for whom societal constructs are made. They are the ones who feed on the bottom dwellers and become the consumers of products and services created by the top 1%. Hence it becomes significant to understand Biology with the lens of Statistics and what better way to draw a line between the concepts on which the disciplines are based on. Corelating a relationship between two unrelated concepts may be a long shot but it surely helps us understand that the domains of science are not very different from each other- the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree (Newton rolls in his grave).
