From the earliest primitive microbe 'Life' has moved inextricably in one powerful direction with one prime sense at the very core of its development. Memory...one very powerful word and a sense which is often overlooked. The more memory a creature develops the better its chance of survival. If you can remember where you obtained food yesterday then you can save that snapshot for future use. If you can remember danger what,where, how and why then you can avoid the cause of that danger in the future.

Memory not only helps us accumulate survival resources, it also has another extremely important function and that is Orientation. Memorizing a landscape - where we have been and where we are now within that 'known' landscape gives us a critical starting point every day. Knowing and memorizing its own physical capabilities and boundaries gives a creature an accumulated picture of 'self' . This picture of 'self' may be the key to evolutionary change and more significant than we think. Let me explain this in more detail.

As we know creatures from the earliest forms have explored their boundaries, both the world around them and their own physical capabilities. The memories they have accumulated are passed on to their offspring which in themselves are really made up of the same creature as their parents. In a very real sense 'life' is a way of cheating time and moving forward and developing in ways that the static physical world (rocks etc) can not. A creature has far more chance of visiting a new landscape as it explores the Planet than being effected by changes of the slow march of time..(With the exception of Meteors and Catastrophic events such as massive Volcanic eruptions). What ever the reason, when a creature is faced with a different environment it has to go into overdrive and completely update its memory database. What food can it eat? What will harm it? Where can it find a safe place to sleep? And which parts of its body suit this new environment. If a part of its body is no longer needed in this environment, then it is no longer part of the 'self' data base.This part of the body becomes redundant. In the opposite corner, if an part of a creatures body is used in a different way, then it has a new significance in the 'self' database. I believe that this accumulated memory and sense of 'self' is the real cause of species growth and development.

Survival if the Fittest? What is the Fittest? It could be the creature that runs the fastest, sees the farthest, has a better sense of smell, growls the loudest....the possibilities are endless and so variable that there is no constant by which you can determine what the 'Fittest' is. Then of course there is the randomness of life 'luck', being in the right place at the right time. The truth is that surviviors survive.The creatures which survive are the creatures that have made the right choices to a given set of circumstances. That means internal choices not external ones determine survival which means a degree of self determination.....Change from the inside not the outside.

I have the same problems with 'Natural Selection'. By Natural does that include the mineral world, the atmosphere, the sun, the water in the oceans and rivers? Because I would like to point out that only organic 'life' can select anything. Rocks don't make choices but organic life does. Again this is change from the inside not the outside. Organic Selection is a better term than Natural Selection, that if you feel the need to explain the development of life on this Planet which in a way is silly because we know exactly what the process is. How come? Because we are here, we are life.

Growth and Development are far better ways of describing the process of change than Evolution. Creatures have a far more controlled and deliberate participation in the process of change. I must stress that creatures don't die, they pass on their accumulated memories and experience with their living cells. Their offspring are them! When we visit a museum and look at the bones of creatures millions of years from the past we are looking at ourselves......and we are still alive. The knowledge and accumulated memories from our ancient past at a very basic level are still with us. We can in very real terms remember the past but it manifests itself in our behavior, our breeding and survival techniques.

A Mouse a Bear a Moose and a Human......Two eyes, two nostrils, one tongue, one brain, two ears, four limbs, one heart two lungs, two kidneys, one stomach, one liver....do I need to go on? This is variation of the same theme, the same thing. We have a staggering amount of features in common and so very little which is significantly different. Recently they have discovered a fossil of the oldest known Primate. The fossil is 47 million years old and is possibly the most intact fossil of a Primate ever found. Not only is the entire skeleton intact, but the imprint and outline of the body and fur. Even the contents of the stomach have been fossilized. The find is so significant that a team of the worlds best experts has assembled to investigate this amazing 'gift' from our past. The fossil was found in Germany which puts an end to the theory that all human life developed in Africa.... 'life' has developed all over the planet simulataniously. All creatures travel, some immense distances and have done for millions and millions of years. Life is a big, huge (very large) endlessly moving, endlessly developing, endlessly exploring interconnected mass. It is both millions and billions of individuals and one combined entity. ONE...singular, the same.....us,we...me.

Now consider the real construction of an animal us human beings for instance. We are made up of millions and millions of individual cells all collaborating together with one massive brain controlling most of this magnificent 'life' machine. We also rely for survival in the co-operation of millions of bacteria and microbes that live with us in our body, without which we could not survive. Each one of these millions of cells, bacteria and microbes are an entity within themselves. No matter how primitive they still have their own memories and their own awareness of their own boundaries. I don't mean in conscious way I mean in a memory way.

Just look at the ways we have expanded our capacity to store and share memories and experience. First with language, then with written text, buildings and monuments. Then came the Telegraph wire, followed by radio and the Phone. The world knew instantly if some event happened on the other side of the globe thousands of miles away. The record disc captured the Human Voice and musical performances. Movies and Photography captured moments in time forever. Radio, Television, Tape, Video Tape, Cd's, DVD's, Satellites, Mobile Phones and The Internet. Our capacity to access information today is staggering. But we could do none of this alone and none of it as a single entity or animal. None of this could be maintained by an individual and ultimately there would be no future with just one individual.

The truth is that there is absolutely no such this as an 'individual' just individual human consciousness, which apart from maybe our closest relatives is a uniquely Human condition. This has been developed by our massive brain and its need to separate itself from the mundanities of survival which it conveniently leaves to the subconscious. This disconnection from ourselves and the entire 'living' community is probably the greatest threat to the future of life and the ultimate continued growth of mankind. It is the core reason why we pollute the planet and extinguish the rich diversity of animal life with such careless abandon. We build our suburban environments and disconnect ourselves from nature, our ambitions are all too often about accumulating wealth and having the external evidence of this in the vain hope that this sense of suburban belonging has meaning. You won't find the meaning of 'life' in concrete, bricks, steel, man made fibers, leather upholstery or money. Does anyone really believe that you can?

Whether we like it or not, the truth is that all life is interconnected and all life ultimately shares in the accumulation of memory and experience. We are blind if we cannot see that. A Lion is a Lion but it is also us. All life on this Planet is interconnected and all life is pushed and pulled by the forces of the Universe. Our ability to react to these pushes and pulls is the very essence of life. All life endlessly explores the environment, visiting the Moon in 1969 was absolutely inevitable, so will the exploration and colonization of our Solar System.

Like a finely balanced engine, the Universe strives for 'harmony' everything in the Universe interacts with each other. But us living creatures have the ability to use the past in the present to maybe affect the future. Like our body and all of the 'friendly' creatures that live with us in our body. When we do what we know is right for us then we achieve harmony in our own bodies. Like music, this harmony is such a wonderful thing. In our relationships with our family, friends and work mates. Right choices cause harmony and everything works better. Like when we learn to express our love or play a piece of music that moves anyone who listens....This is harmony. Like the 'strings' in string theory harmony is the wonderful music of the Universe and our ultimate challenge as 'life' on this earth. If you want the answer to the meaning of life well there it is. Listen to the lessons the Universe teaches you as you react to the relentless push and pull of your life and strive for harmony by making the right choices. We all know the difference between right and wrong. We all know when we are being selfish and we all look the other way when it suits us. We need to rise above this and do better

Nothing I have written is overtly 'Scientific', nothing I have written is complicated, nothing I have written is offensive in any way that I can think of. The real truth is always simple, it is always right in front of us. Asking a human being 'What is the meaning of Life?' should not be a complicated question......but it is. We love complicating simple things because that's a very easy way of avoiding the truth and accountability.

Well its time now to be accountable, we have a tremendous responsibility that has been nurtured by 'life' for millions of years. This wonderful struggle that has led to the world today has put us in a position of leadership. Every living creature on this planet is our responsibility, because all life is 'us'. There is no 'me'..........just us.

If you find this article interesting then read my other 'Fantastic Voyage Hub' Visiting Parallel Universes in our Dreams - The true future of Space and Time travel is within our grasp.