In the past week I observed three peculiar biological phenomena. I wonder why these were evolved. The observations:
1. I have a money plant at my place. I observed that only alternate leaves on a stem dry up. Why?
2. The bananas start ripening from bottom to up. Why not top to bottom? Or, all at once?
3. Crying is very contagious. When someone cries, you get an urge to cry even though you have no particular emotion or desire for crying. Why this?
Nature is perfect designer. Nothing is evolved per se. Everything has a reason. So, these must have perfectly valid advantages for the organism. What are these?
You know, not everything in nature has a reason. Evolution does not aim to be efficient or otherwise beneficial. Evolution is what happens. In the broadest sense, evolution is merely change. And this does not imply perfection in any sense of the word. But I like your thinking…
All organisms are in as perfect state for their immediate environment as possible. This means there is a (evolutionary) historical reason for all of their traits.
I never said evolution aims to be beneficial or what. It is just the fact that any trait beneficial for the organism will be preserved. So, we can easily say that any trait observed in the organism is preserved because it is (or was in loose terms) beneficial for the organism. Hence, everything in nature has a reason. I hope I have clarified my point.
Hmm..Very thought-provoking question. I guess the bananas start rotting from the bottom so that we can at least take a few fresh bites off the upper side. If they started rotting from above, then we would have to cute the upper part first, throw it away and then eat the remaining bottom. But the nature is clever and smart. And very familiar with human behaviour too. And God is a perfect designer!
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Actually, what you are saying is true, albeit in a different sense. Check out Mirror Neurons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_neuron). They might be cause of contagiousness of most emotions.