My declared major is Global Politics and I can say that the concepts of evolution and human variability are definitely both present! A large part of global politics is studying the past and ongoing changes in world political systems and economies. These constant changing systems where better ideas and theories prevail and preferences change is similar to how mutations in genes that are passed on and how natural selection act in evolution biologically. Human variability is important in Global Politics because there are often commonly shared traits that help create and fortify ethnic groups. These shared traits are important for self-identification within ethnic groups. These groups can often be key players in global politics as many ethnic groups have created nations and nation-states. Since ethnic conflicts still exist, it can be said that there are wars literally fought over very small differences in their human variability.
I would have to say that this week’s videos and readings did not really make me consider evolution or human variability in relation to my major differently. I still find the process of evolution similar to the process of changing political economies.
All of the science courses I have taken at Michigan State so far have been related to astronomy, and I can see how evolution relates heavily. The evolutionary process explains how we went from a single-celled organism to the extremely different and more advanced beings that we are today. Lots of astronomy is explaining the process of how things got to be. I have studied how the origins of the universe became what it is today. Similarly, I have studied the long process of how stars begin, going from a gas cloud to a red giant or a supernova. This is also similar to the long process that biological evolution explains. I find it much harder to related human variability to astronomy, other than the concept of categorizing and identifying things based on specific traits.
I would have to say that this week’s videos and readings did not really make me consider evolution or human variability in relation to my science classes differently. I still find the process of evolution similar to the process of our evolving universe and the life of stars.
Even if the videos and readings this week did not affect how I thought of my previous classes and my major, I did find the material very interesting. There was a great deal of new information that I was excited to learn. I found the Alters and Alters chapter very interesting. I had felt that almost everyone at least had some understanding, even if it was minimal, of evolution. I thought the quotes on the first page were very influential while reading. I see why creationists may not want this to be included in school but I agree with the authors that evolution should be taught in school. I thought the most interesting material covered was National Geographic’s Human Genome Project. Even the intro video for the Human Genome Project was interesting. It was crazy to see how even those who may never interact with one another could share enough traits to have physical resemblances.
Hi Zac. Your entire thread if very interesting to me. I have never studied astronomy and have mainly studied American politics in school, although I follow global politics in personal life, but it’s only current politics. Comparing the evolution of politics to biological evolution never occurred to me, but it makes a lot of sense! Things only became how they are now in the world through a chain reaction and evolving decisions, both small and large. Being reminded that large wars can start of because of small choices, like how a slight change in genes can change a person drastically, is wild to think about. It seems like the study of astrology is much closer to the study of human evolution and while it can be risky to debate, it’s something that everyone should have a basic understanding of.
Hey Zac! After reading your post about how your major of Global Politics is present within evolution and human variability. Now that I know more about your major because I had no clue that Global politics could relate to this topic from the top of my mind. But I like your topic very much because I can see how taking Astronomy class is a big part of life and the outskirts of our universe as a whole. However, I would agree with you that the videos provided for us for this class did not alter my thoughts on evolution. Well, I would say that simply because we learned about evolution heavily in our classes over the years. It wouldn’t fully prove to change our views because the majority of the people are taught the same material in our science courses.
Hello Zac, I love your post and found it quite interesting. I agree with Josh’s comment above because I was also unaware how global politics could also relate tot his topic, thank you for opening my eyes to that. I also love your thoughts about relating human variability to astronomy. I look forward to reading your future blog posts.
Hi Zac! I loved the organization of your blog, the connections between your previous science classes and your major are very clear. Even though the videos and readings didn’t help you see through a new perspective on the subject, I was glad to see you were honest about it. Reading your connections between your knowledge of evolution and knowledge of astronomy stuck out to me and it makes me feel like I’m missing out on learning interesting information that would benefit my current knowledge of evolution! I agree with you that I related to the argument the Alters and Alters article shared that the study of evolution is extremely beneficial to students and should be taught in schools starting from an early age. I grew up attending Catholic schools for most of my life, and the possibility of human evolution was rarely discussed. Seeing how wide-eyed and excited to learn about this theory and how it connects through many other fields makes me only think about the benefits of knowledge I could have experienced at a much younger age.
Your blog and the connections you’ve made are very interesting! You have an obvious connection between your major and evolution. Having knowledge of the past and human behavior in the past will be very helpful when studying global politics and eventually into your career. The connection you made between evolution and astronomy is very interesting and how you connected the origins of the universe with human evolution! This blog topic is very cool to see how each person is able to relate the information they have learned and their majors with evolution and human variability. You seem to have a wide variety of knowledge which is really cool and will be extremely helpful to you in your career. Learning about evolution and human variability adds to that as well!
It was interesting reading your post and I can say that I have learned so much from your major. You pointed out about the issue of global politics as the study of the past and the ongoing changes that are taking place in the world. The changes that are taking pace have brought different theories and some of them include the shared traits that are present in different ethnic groups. I also found the issue of evolution that you mentioned as interesting because it explains to us the issue of human variability. The variability can be experienced along behavioral lines and this is interesting because it means that there is diversity in human beings. I enjoyed reading your post in that discussion.