And since natural selection has so much in common with play, we can reasonably say that life is playful in the most basic sense. Cambridge University LibraryIn addition to all the books, maps and manuscripts, there is also a child’s drawing, which the curators described as “The battle of the fruit and vegetable soldiers.”

The drawing shows a cavalry soldier with a turban fighting against an English dragoon. It’s a bit crazy: the British soldier is sitting astride a carrot and the turbaned soldier is riding a bunch of grapes. Both the carrots and the grapes have horse heads and stick attachments.

It is believed to be the work of Francis Darwin, the seventh child of The British naturalist Charles Darwin And his wife Emma and appears to have been created in 1857 when Frank was 10 or 11 years old. And it is on the back of a page of a draft of “On the origin of species”, Darwin’s masterpiece and the foundational text of evolutionary biology. The few sheets of the draft that still survive are pages that Darwin gave to his children as drawing paper.

Darwin’s biographers have long recognized that play in his personal and Family life. The Georgian style mansion where he and Emma raised their 10 children, featured a rope swing suspended over the first floor landing and a portable wooden slide that could be placed over the main staircase. The gardens and surrounding landscape served as an outdoor laboratory and playground.

Play also plays a role in Darwin’s theory of natural selection. As I explain in my new book:Kingdom of the GameIn his book “What Ball-Bouncing Octopuses, Belly-Splashing Monkeys, and Mud-Sliding Elephants Reveal About Life Itself,” there are many similarities—so many that if the processes of natural selection could be reduced to a single behavior, that behavior would be play.

No goal, no direction

Natural selection is the process by which organisms best adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and thus to pass on to their offspring the traits that helped them thrive. It is non-directional: In Darwin’s words: “contains no necessary and universal law of progress or development.”

Through natural selection, the rock pocket mouse has evolved a fur color that protects it from predators in the desert southwest.

Unlike foraging and hunting – behaviors with clearly defined goals – play is also undirected. When a pony frolics in a meadow, a dog wrestles with a stick, or chimpanzees chase each other, they act without a goal.

Natural selection is entirely provisional: the evolution of any organism responds to the conditions prevailing in a particular place and at a particular time. Animals at play are also provisional. They constantly adapt their movements to changing circumstances. Playing squirrels change their tactics and routes when faced with obstacles such as falling branches or other squirrels.

Natural selection has no end. Life forms are not fixed but are constantly evolving. Play also has no end. Animals start a play session without planning when they will end it. For example, two dogs that are playfully fighting will not stop playing until one of them is injured, exhausted or simply loses interest.

Natural selection is also wasteful, as Darwin acknowledged.”Many more individuals of each species are born than can survive,” he wrote. But in the long run, he acknowledged, such waste can produce adaptations that allow an evolutionary line to become “fitter.”

Keepers noticed that Shanthi, a 36-year-old elephant at the Smithsonian National Zoo, liked to make noise with objects, so they gave her horns, harmonicas and other noisemakers.

Play is also wasteful. It requires animals to expend time and energy that could perhaps be better spent on survival-critical behaviors such as foraging and hunting.

And this extravagance has its advantages. Animals forage and hunt in certain ways that don’t usually change. But a playful animal is much more likely to innovate – and some of its innovations can be converted over time into new ways of foraging and hunting.

Compete and cooperate

Darwin’s first description of the “struggle for life” was largely a competition. But in the 1860s The Russian naturalist Pyotr KropotkinObservations of birds and fallow deer led him to the conclusion that many species “the most numerous and wealthiest“, because natural selection also chooses cooperation.

Scientists confirmed Kroptokin’s hypothesis in the 20th century and discovered all possible forms of cooperation, not only between members of the same species, but also between members of different species. Clownfish, for example, are immune to anemone stings; they nest in anemone tentacles for protection and in return keep the anemones free of parasites, provide nutrients and repel predators.

Play involves both competition and cooperation. Two dogs that are playfully fighting are competing with each other, but to maintain their play they must work together. They often switch roles: a dog that is in a better position may suddenly give up that advantage and roll onto his back. If one of them bites harder than intended, he will likely back away and do a play bow – essentially saying, “My bad. I hope we can keep playing.”

River otters at the Oregon Zoo repeatedly separate and reunite while playing in a tub of ice.

Natural selection and play can both involve deception. From butterflies colored to resemble poisonous species to wild cats that squeal like desperate baby monkeysMany organisms use mimicry to deceive their prey, predators and rivals. Play – especially playful fighting – also provides animals with the opportunity to learn and practice deception.

Life is about playing

Darwin wrote that natural selection “infinite forms, the most beautiful and wonderful.” Play also creates beauty in countless ways, from the aerial acrobatics of Birds of prey To the arched, twisting jumps of the dolphins.

In 1973 The Ukrainian-American geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky (city) published an essay with the uncompromising title “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.” Many biologists would agree. Perhaps the most satisfying definition of life is not concerned with what it is, but with what it does – what That is, life is what evolves through natural selection.

And since natural selection has so much in common with play, we can reasonably say that life is playful in the most basic sense.

David Toomey is a professor of English at UMass Amherst. This article was republished by The conversation under a Creative Commons LicenseRead the Original article.