April 24, 2011

Uniqueness and the Molecular Un-Uniqueness of Human Beings (Connections)


Human (above) vs. Fruitfly Interactome (below)


Sitting in front of a screen for over an hour typing and researching new, interesting things to post on our blog, made me think. What other creature but man could sit staring, devoting himself solely on endeavours of the mind? While a predator may sit patiently for hours waiting for prey to crawl out of a hole, we sit and ponder on a reality unique to ourselves, separate from the world around us. Creativity and our introspectiveness just seem so foreign to any species, even our closest cousins the ape. One could teach an ape to play Pac man (and believe that its been done), but who but us would take it as far as role playing as Pac man. We can immerse ourselves in a world beyond our own, in fact sometimes its absolutely necessary to maintain sanity in our modern life.

One would logically think then that there is a huge divide between us and the next closest intelligent species, so surely there must be a huge difference between us and other creatures in terms of genes and physical structures. We've lived with this assumption for thousands of years, and perhaps its what gave us the egocentric notion that we must take dominion over 'beast'. Recent science however has found the exact opposite, genetically we are nearly 98-99% similar to our ape cousins. In fact in a study conducted recently the main difference in genomes between man and ape occurred in only 510 gene deletions in humans, which fall almost exclusively in non-coding regions. Even a fly shares 60% with a human. So in terms of physical difference we aren't very different or special when compared to any other mammal or even animal.

There is however new evidence to show that its the connections and interactions between our genes and proteins that is we make that really makes us vastly unique. The human interactome (a diagram that shows the connections and interactions between genes and proteins) gives evidence to this as you can see a great degree of difference between animal interactomes. Far more complex in humans than any other animal (far more branches per node). It is in this fact alone that we are the unique creature that we are, the connections between genes and not the genes themselves.

We can extrapolate this model to fit the individual as well, it goes to show that its not our physical selves that make us unique but its the connections and ideas we create. We can all experience the same reality and each perceive it so differently due to past connections we have made. We are in essence the accumulation of connections made. Life is about connections, innovation and creativity which comes from connecting dots in new ways. This powerful brain of ours that went from ape to modern man in 2.5 million years, and it simply allows us to make connections faster as it is hard-wired in our genetics.

What this means is that we can now be even more optimistic than ever before in history. For it was in about a few decades but more recently in the last decade that we have suddenly created a whole new network of connections. A network that connects all our individual minds that create thousands upon millions of connections in a life time. And suddenly we can have everyone contributing without the limitations of geography or even education as knowledge itself has become openly accessible. Now while this may sound overly optimistic, it is a view that is so solemn heard. Life and complex life, consciousness itself stems from connections and we are now in a unique place in time where we can all connect.


Global Internet Network Map.


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