Attraction (Part 1)

I have developed a theory or reached an interpretation from several readings and observations that we are participating in the process of human evolution. No matter how much I have developed a sympathy, feelings, personality over the years, no matter where I look at, I perceive the traces of past evolutionary events. I recognize the ongoing modification as we live by. I can foresee that I will be absent in future evolutionary process. Mr. XXX as I go by my parents given name, Mr. XXX as an entire entity, as a unique personality accumulated over the years, as one of a kind identity developed over the years, will not be in the future. The least I can expect is I might as well be a tiny bit of element in future evolutionary process if I decide to procreate with another human being, i.e., providing my gene package into a gene pool.

Here’s my explanation on gene pool. You can have a much better explanation from experts in evolutionary study.

Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes. Since we reproduce by mating with opposite sex, we have a pair for each chromosome: one from father and one from mother. You might wonder if so, why we remain having an exact number of chromosomes over millions of years, 23 pairs of chromosome. Should we be increasing the number? Coming from 23 (father) + 23 (mother) = 46, and then 46 (father) + 46 (mother) = 92, so on and so forth?

The missing information here is although we do possess 23 pairs of chromosomes in our body, we only have 23 chromosomes, not pairs, in our reproductive cells, i.e., sperm in males and ovary in females. Our skin cells have 23 pairs of chromosomes, i.e., 46 in total, but our reproductive cells (sperms or ovaries) only have 23 chromosomes. That’s why we keep having the exact number of chromosomes over millions of years.

Not delving into this reproductive mating and number of chromosomes, what I’d like to emphasize here is, gene pool. Imagine you have a bag full of red balls. When I said “red”, the bag actually has many balls with different hues of red color. Some balls are pretty bright red; some are cherry red, some are pinkish red, so on and so forth. But over all, the color can be grouped as “red”. When you pick a random ball from the bag, you’re bound to come up with a red ball. There is zero probability that you picked up a blue ball from a bag of red balls.

Now imagine a situation where two balls can fuse together and form a new ball. What can you expect from a bag full of red balls? A bright red ball and a pale red ball fuse together and form another ball with a red color in between. Or two bright red balls fuse and form an equally bright red ball. You can’t get away with red color yet with different hues as long as you keep picking up from a bag with red balls.

This “red” color makes up one of the genes in entire gene pool.

You can think of we humans as a set of genes making up body, eyes, skin, etc etc etc.

Therefore, you never see a European person in Asian countries or vice versa. Two Asian persons having a baby with European characteristics is rare to none.

Now you get an idea of a bag full of red balls yet with different hues. Now when you put that into demographic perspective, Asian countries produce Asians and European countries Europeans, so on and so forth. The typical features that encompass or describe a person are basically a particular set of genes which initially come from a common gene pool prevalent in the area – Asian stock, etc etc.

We’re not even thinking about Environmental influence or Nurture effect. Just a nature or prevalent set of genes from a particular gene pool give us an idea of why we all are different yet we constitute an entire gene pool. Europeans do not represent a whole set of gene pool in terms of global perspective. Neither do Asians, Africans, Middle Easterners and others.

You grew up in Asian countries, and you belong to one of them. You don’t find it hard to differentiate billions of Asian people. Your perception of even a subtle change in typical features is so sharp that you can easily recognize who is bright red or who is pinkish red. But for outsiders like foreigners who see a group of Asian people as a bag full of red balls are no different than Asian people seeing other foreigners as a group of foreigners.

We are basically representing a set of genes from a particular gene pool. Including you as well. If you are Chinese by blood via your ancestors from China, your set of genes come from a particular gene pool prevalent in China.