Crossing a Chasm: In Small Steps?

Evolution is defined as the change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations, resulting in changes in both the genotype and phenotype. The evidence for evolution is primarily circumstantial, being based on fossils of extinct species, physical similarities, and a largely common genome. Charles Darwin believed that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual's ability to compete, survive, and reproduce.

Today, we know so much more than Darwin did 150 years ago, leading many evolutionary scientists to discard genetic mutation and natural selection as having the developmental power previously ascribed to them, leaving them entirely puzzled as to the processes involved. What has been missing in the science so far is "systems thinking" - a holistic approach to analysis that focuses on the way that systems' constituent parts interrelate, how systems work over time within the context of larger systems, and are by nature, irreducibly complex.

Questioning whether the mind consists of organs of the brain, an emergent property of the brain, or activities of the brain, as scientists claim, the author has concluded for none of these. The brain being material, it can only do what the properties of its constituent elements allow it to do. Since the mind is capable of so much more, even contrary to the limitations of the material, one must conclude for a non-material form.

The book compares the human nervous system with telemetry systems as used in modern technological applications. Though implemented differently, the functional requirements remain the same, which has prompted a different perspective on how it could have evolved with such precise specified complexity.