Specialization, Heterogeneity and Acceptance

Everything I know about economics I learned from a filmstrip in junior high. This was one of those educational films they made back in the fifties with cheesy voice over and animated characters. It was the story of a tribe of hunter-gatherers with names like Sam, Bob and Charlie who advanced all the way from their simple, barter based, economy through, banking, industrialization and into the modern world.

The first step on their journey to economic sophistication came because Charlie, the best hunter in the tribe, was frustrated. You see, Charlie wasn’t much of a toolmaker and he spent far more of his time repairing broken arrows than he did out in the woods stalking prey. Sam, who was an excellent toolmaker, offered to make all of his arrows in exchange for a share of Charlie’s kills. Soon, Charlie was a hunting specialist, Sam a tool specialist, and Bob, who loved working in his fields, was a farming specialist. Suddenly the tribe was far more productive as specialists than they ever had been as generalists.

Sam, Charlie and Bob went on to invent currency, banking, and a stock market but specialization was the key first step.

Not only does specialization increase productivity by allowing people to spend more time doing what they’re good at, but it also creates greater competition between specialists. Let’s say, instead of just one toolmaker in our tribe, there are two, Sam and Lisa. Now, Charlie and Bob have a choice, encouraging Lisa and Sam to improve their products.

There is also competition between the specialties. It is in Bob’s interest for most of the tribe’s sustenance to come from the land, while it’s in Charlie’s interests for the tribe to prefer meat for dinner. If one of them is able to improve their production, they will increase their market share.

In a community of generalists where each individual provides all of their needs, advancement is much slower because no one has time to devote all of their energy to a single endeavor.

Specialization is nothing new. Life on earth is a testament to specialization and one of the pillars of Darwin’s theory of evolution. In his great work, The Origin of Species, Darwin shows how natural selection has resulted in life which is uniquely suited for it’s environment. For instance, on the Galapagos islands there are birds who have developed unusually long thin beaks in order to suck fresh water our of deep crevasses in the rocks.

However, this kind of specialization is markedly different from the one used by Sam, Bob and Charlie. For the most part, Darwin describes specialization between species not within species.

Specialization within most animal species is, relative to human specialization, minor. This is not to say that there aren’t distinct rolls for the male and female in most species, as well as roles for dominant and submissive members. However, there is nothing like the complex and infinitely varied specialization, which makes up human society.

The silverback might be the dominant gorilla in nature but in many ways his life isn’t all that different from a submissive gorilla within the same species. Their diet, habitat, and daily activity are relatively similar. Try comparing a truck driver and a poet, or a farm worker and an airline pilot. They live differently, work differently and even speak differently. They depend upon different skills, both mental and physical and seek decidedly different results. A jeweler needs excellent eyesight and small motor skills for his livelihood, while a football player needs raw speed and power for his. We have become so specialized, in fact, that if we were pulled out of our society and forced to live as “generalists” providing all our own needs, most of us simply wouldn’t survive.

Human, specialization, in its most productive form, occurs at the nexus of aptitude, circumstances and personal preference. Charlie wouldn’t be a great hunter if he were born without keen eyesight, excellent endurance and tremendous patience. He would also not be the kind of hunter he is if he was raised in an urban environment instead of a natural one. And, even if he were born into the right environment with all the physical and mental skills necessary for hunting, he would not be a great hunter if he didn’t enjoy the work. Aptitude, circumstances and personal preference. Two out of three might create a skilled craftsman, but when all three combine in just the right way, our specialist, becomes an expert, an artist or genius.

So, where does all this specialization come from? The circumstances are relatively self-explanatory. Children born into an illiterate society are far less likely to become scholars, just as a child born in Hawaii is far less likely to become a professional hockey player.

Aptitude and personal preference, however, have as much to do with our genetic make up as they do with our upbringing. We have known for a long time that physical characteristics like height, hair and eye color were part of our genetic make-up, but with the mapping of the human genome we have learned a great deal more about what makes individual humans individuals. Not only, does our genetic code predict, to some degree, our skill set within a certain area, such as strength speed, rhythm or logic, but it also predicts what kinds of activities give us the most joy.

Our bodies have a reward system for keeping us on the correct path. When we do something “good”, eating, exercising, having sex, our body releases various chemicals (particularly dopamine) into our system that makes us feel good. We like the feeling, so we are drawn to repeat those behaviors which produce it.

However, not all people are wired the same. People get different dopamine rewards from different activities. Some people go nuts over music, others over food. Some people like nothing more that to be in the outdoors, others wouldn’t go camping if you paid them. We’ve all been in situations where we couldn’t understand how the person on the other side didn’t marvel along with us at the amazing symphony, the delicious meal or the beautiful tree. Just as we’ve all pretended to be interested as someone we care about shows us something that is intensely meaningful to them but means almost nothing to us. Normally, we chalk up these differences to upbringing, or training but they are more than that. Our personal preferences are deeply rooted in the microscopic, chemical bonds of our genetic code.

By mapping the human genome scientists have discovered the specific code which connects us to music, food, and nature. They have even mapped the coding for religious feeling. People with this specific DNA sequence turned “on” are far more likely to understand the world around them in religious terms. They are, quite literally, built to feel the presence of God. Whether, that particular coding is leading them to a greater understanding of how the universe works or fooling them into belief in a non-existent deity is not for me to say.

The more interesting question to me is, “why does this encoding exist in the first place?” Why are humans so different, not just from the other species of the world, but from each other?

To answer this question we must return to Darwin and evolution. According to Darwin every trait within a species is there because, at some point in time, it provided a greater probability of survival. Giraffes developed long necks because it increased their ability to find food. The Siberian husky developed a thick undercoat to help them survive sub-freezing temperatures. So, what about a love of music, or a sense of the spiritual in the universe? If they are genetically determined traits, which it seems that they are, how do they contribute to our species survival? And if they do, why don’t all of us have them?

Humans are the single most powerful species on the planet. In the last million years (a blink of an eye in our global history) they have risen from relative obscurity to a dominance of the planet so complete that they now hold in their hands the power to destroy the environment which produced them. What traits have we evolved that have made us so successful? We’re not the strongest creatures on earth or the fastest. We’re certainly not the most durable or the longest lived. Even the human brain (the feature most often sited for our success) isn’t the largest on the planet. Scientists have speculated for years about which human traits have given us such a tremendous evolutionary advantage. Intelligence, complex language, and tool manipulation, have all been cited as key advantages which humans posses over other animal species. However, is it possible that our most potent advantage isn’t one thing but many things? Is it possible that it is our very differences both in aptitude and desire which make humans uniquely adaptive and productive? Is it possible that we are biologically programmed to specialize?

Human beings aren’t one thing. They are many things. They move in many directions, enjoy different past times and adhere to different philosophies. No one pursuit, ambition or idea has brought us to where we are today but rather the combination of a nearly infinite number of differences.

Specialization, as humans practice it, is not the byproduct of homogeneity but of heterogeneity. A species without the incredible diversity of the human race would have neither the desire nor the ability to specialize the way that we have. So, perhaps in the final analysis, it is our differences not our similarities which give us our strength.

Consider the United States. The most powerful nation the world has ever seen is also the most diverse. Is this a coincidence?

Our differences lead to specialization not just in economics but also in the world of art, culture and ideas. What if Sam and Lisa were not two competing toolmakers, but two competing musicians, scientists, or philosophers? The end result is the same. Competition, within specialties, drives them to improve their work.

Competition between the specialties also exists outside the world of pure economics. Darwin spent 20 years refining his theory of evolution before publishing The Origin of Species, because he knew how strong his religious opposition would be. In many ways, it was those 20 years of hard work, research and refinement which gave his theory it’s potency. Those 20 years would probably not have happened without the knowledge of a religious adversary. Traditional religious thought might be the enemy of modern evolutionary theory but it has also forced every scientist since Darwin to defend, refine and back up their ideas. Opposition, no matter how misguided, can force us to work harder and improve.

In my own work, sometimes, the stupidest comment will force me to clarify my ideas in ways I never would have considered while working in isolation or within an entirely like-minded environment.

However, if heterogeneity gives us our strength it also brings with it an inherent danger. Different philosophies, lifestyles and perspectives often lead to misunderstanding, conflict and, tragically, violence.

Many scholars believe that America today is more polarized than it has been in any era since the civil war. Left and Right, Religious and Secular, Liberal and conservative, have grown so entrenched in their positions that they seem to have lost the ability to communicate at all. As both sides battle for supremacy, each longs for a world filled only with like minded people where their lifestyles and ideas would not be under constant scrutiny or derision.

A homogeneous society can, at times, seem like a kind of paradise, but the quest for homogeneity has led to some of the most repressible crimes in history. Religious persecution from the Spanish Inquisition to the holocaust, Ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia, and Rwanda, Political slaughter, under Stalin, Mao or Pol Pot, the ultimate outcome of the quest for homogeneity is slaughter. And no matter how many people you kill, no matter how many differences you wipe off the planet there will be no end in conflict, because with every difference that is eliminated 10 more emerge to sew discontent and conflict. Even a world populated by one race, one religion, and one sexual orientation would still find differences to fight over because we have so many too choose from.

The tragedy of this is that difference is not our weakness but our strength. No one, ideology, talent or perspective can solve all the world’s problems but many different kinds of people working in many different ways might just be able to save the human race.

I tend to approach the world in relatively scientific terms. If there is a genetic trigger for a belief in God it seems to have passed me by. In fact, my description of spirituality as a primarily, evolutionary phenomenon is pretty good evidence that I am not myself a believer. However, does my scientific predisposition mean that I would want to live in a world that never saw Jesus, Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr.? Without religion, these great men and many others would simply not have existed.

On the other side, there are many, religious people in the world who are distrustful of science and see the unstoppable march of progress as a journey away from key values and important traditions. But would most of those people want to live in a world without Galileo, Newton or Einstein? They might not believe in Darwin’s theory of Evolution but would they want their children to die of diseases that the study of evolution has cured?

Just as our primitive tribe needed specialists like Sam, Bob and Charlie to build their civilization, we need specialists like, Jesus, Gandhi and Darwin to build ours because,
the reality is, that as much as our differences can be difficult to deal with, they are an inseparable part of what it is to be human and a key to our future survival.

So as the tide of intolerance rises, and the threats to our most sacred beliefs grow stronger, it is only natural to cry out for acceptance, to demand that those on the other side open their ears and eyes and hearts to our ideas, our lifestyles, and our choices. But the truth is the demand for acceptance can sometimes be little more than another form of intolerance. Because, in the final analysis, acceptance, like love, is not something which can be demanded, but only given. How can we criticize others for their failure to accept us when we have made no effort to accept them?

The human race will never be one thing. They will never follow one philosophy, or live in one, particular way. Humans are difficult and different. They are as talented as they are unpredictable, as driven as they are unique. These differences create incredible opportunities but they also carry with them incredible dangers. Navigating through this minefield of diversity takes patience, compassion and above all, acceptance.