The power of diversity

One of the most remarkable features of life is how it manages to thrive in a constantly changing environment. We might choose to think that things do not change or only do so slowly, and that is true for certain types of change, but there are many others which can only be tagged as "fast": just the simple change from day to night, which happens sometimes thousands of times in the lifetime of an individual, can be so deep-cutting as to destroy things that are not protected by the counteracting force of life. Living things, on the other hand, not only survive change, but they even look for it: even at the most basic biological level, single cell organisms alternate between construction (also called anabolism), including the construction of food reserves, and consumption (catabolism). And the power of this alternation can be easily underestimated, but it is an intrinsic element of resiliency.

Compare this approach with the generation of electricity: most of the electrical power consumed in the world is generated exactly at the time of its consumption, because it is relatively easy to produce large amounts of power but not so much to store it or to retrieve it from storage. The result of this immediacy is that, whenever the demand increases, a generator has to be started somewhere in the electrical network to produce the required power, and then the process is reversed when the demand shrinks. The advantage of this solution is that it supplies energy around the clock, but the balance is very delicate and the equipment required is quite costly. Life, on the other hand, accepts the compromise of intermittent operation, but it gains in the change a lot of flexibility to balance the energy budget: on days when food is easily available, there is no need to spend much time foraging and, vice versa, if a day is particularly high in consumption, it can easily be compensated on the next recollection period.

Photo: Brett Jordan

But in spite of all the flexibility built into living organisms, there are certain features which just cannot be changed: from the color of our skin to the size and structure of our bodies, the adaptability of individuals is limited or non-existent at all. In fact, there are even genetic diseases which condemn their bearers to a second-tier life of even a premature death. And while technology has provided a lot of means to mitigate this kind of effects, they are still, for the most part, incurable. But the genetic lottery does not only create losers: occasionally a fortuitous mutation can provide a competitive advantage, and that is precisely the reason why life still relies not only on the random combination of genomes through sexual reproduction, but also in accidental mutations. Wherever life toughens up, having a wide gene pool means that the species is likely to have a chance at surviving, even if that means the demise of huge numbers among its ranks.

Surprisingly, this kind of diversity can also be really helpful on a cultural level. Members of different societies might have very similar genetic build-up, but they are exposed even from before birth to all sorts of uses and customs which, even it they do not alter their genetics, indubitably affect the future response of the individuals to certain situations. And diversity is, once more, a key element for resiliency.

This idea came about after last week's chat with my mother and brothers. My mom had been doing volunteering work for an elderly home and they had suddenly decided to let her go (it is unclear it she accidentally stepped on someone's toes or not, but this point is irrelevant for the present discussion). Her main concerned was that the residents would not be properly tended too, because the manager had also let a nurse go and was not planning to replace either of them. Confronted with this situation my brother David and myself started to ponder how to make the situation better: from trying to talk to the manager to blowing the whistle to the supervising authorities. We discussed the different options for a little while, weighing the pros and cons against one another, until eventually my middle brother Jack dialed in and contributed a completely different approach which had not even crossed our minds: before my mother even considered taking action against the managers, she should first check it the managers could have anything against her, because in case anything came to court the managers' lawyers were going to make use of any ammunition they could find.

My point today does not focus on the final outcome of the discussion but on the true power of diversity: without Jack's contribution would could have run into an open knife and only his alternative (and admittedly quite defensive) worldview prevented us from making an absolutely foolish mistake. There might be some situations when there is just not enough time to hear all voices, and in those cases it might be reasonable to go tor a not-so-good solution for the sake of expediency. But everywhere else diversity can be really helpful. Please do not miss on the opportunity to learn something that you did not even know you did not know. Have a nice evening.