Tuesday, September 03, 2002
Playfulness and evolution
The following is from the 1998-1999 Bradley Lectures - this one by Virginia Postrel, editor of Reason magazine and author of The Future and Its Enemies:
We human beings, however, play all our lives. For a human being not to be creative and curious is a sign of senility, not maturity. This playfulness gives humans an evolutionary advantage: An adult who continues to play will be more adaptable still, able to draw not only on old experiences but on the desire for new ones.
The spirit of play allows us to adapt to an unstable environ ment and to venture into new territories. Human beings can flourish from the tropics to the Arctic, through earthquakes and hurricanes, plagues and droughts, because we have developed the resilience that comes from play.
We human beings, however, play all our lives. For a human being not to be creative and curious is a sign of senility, not maturity. This playfulness gives humans an evolutionary advantage: An adult who continues to play will be more adaptable still, able to draw not only on old experiences but on the desire for new ones.
The spirit of play allows us to adapt to an unstable environ ment and to venture into new territories. Human beings can flourish from the tropics to the Arctic, through earthquakes and hurricanes, plagues and droughts, because we have developed the resilience that comes from play.
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