Biological Evolution vs Behavioral Adaptability and the Nature of Change.

The history of humans is in many ways a story of astonishing adaptability. Humans have settled in all continents except Antarctica, and their numbers have increased exponentially as they were able to cultivate food sources, deal with the elements and continuously innovate their tool making and technology. Consciousness, this elusive and seemingly unique human trait, provided freedom from basic instincts and allowed the development of a more complex interaction with one’s environment. Language, another human peculiarity, has enabled cooperation and collaboration between large groups and the transmission of sophisticated and detailed information. The sense of self, and the connection to the group, have created a complex balance between one’s personal needs and the needs of the group or the others.

Our human ability to communicate in an abstract way, and to act and plan in ways more sophisticated than instinctual, allows for a highly advanced behavioral adaptability. It makes humans less dependent on biological adaptability, which typically requires longer evolutionary time. In other words, humans can adapt their behavior to new circumstances without needing a concomitant biological evolutionary process.

Individuals marooned on a desert island often manage to survive and even thrive. In times of war, natural disasters or epidemics, humans show the capacity to bond together and overcome even the worst of times, all the while striving to “return to normalcy”, i.e. restore the balance of the communal mind to comforting predictability.

Behavioral adaptability—inarguably central to human survival and successful expansion—is an acquired trait that is absent in a newborn and does not kick start until language develops. Language, consciousness, and a sense of community inadvertently created a distance from our connection to the natural environment.

This turning away from nature was possible only together. In face of a shared hardship, the group tends to close ranks in determination. The feeling of unity increases as the group needs each member to do a part for the collective survival. The communal consensus decrees that all need to lend a hand to deal with the impending threat to survival. Sacrificing one’s individual needs for getting along with the collective is nothing special, given it is part of the contract with the group. But in times of crisis, helping others while risking oneself is elevated to the finest form of heroism. The social rewards for heroism are meant to encourage cooperation and discourage selfish behavior. The communal mind is recruiting all its members to struggle together against the threat to survival.

In fact, survival, and not the personal fulfillment of its members, is the goal of the communal mind. Most devoted group members accept their life plot as destiny. Routine is the anesthetic that keeps the communal mind placid. So long as the routine is kept, the communal mind does not notice their daily struggles as they fit into the social matrix by acting their role. Acting the designated role of a social member is, for most, the acceptable meaning for their life and few people rebel against the social order.

Otroverts do not occupy a role in the group. They have no place in the hierarchy. They rarely acquire a natural status on the social ladder, irrespective of their actual provenance. Attempts by the group to incorporate them cannot succeed as an otrovert is resistant to indoctrination. They can be made to comply with an assigned social role, but they are unable to truly accept it and would always look for ways to break away.

Free of the burden of others, an otrovert can fare quite well. Being a lifelong lone survivalist, an otrovert would adapt to environmental change much better and more quickly than the group. It is the social contract that remains elusive to an otrovert: the idea that people adapt to life sanctioned by the communal mind. An otrovert internal rebellion cannot adapt to life that is not suitable to them. An otrovert adapts their life to their own comfort zone.

Behavioral adaptability relies on the role assigned to each member of the group. Otroverts’ survival depends on the role they assign to themselves.

The inability for behavioral adaptation is a main characteristic of an otrovert. Otroverts chart their own course adapting to the environment they create for themselves.