David Starr Jordan (DSJ) → grew up bringing order to Chaos
Born 1851, as a child loved & learned the stars (chose middle name Starr), made maps, studied flowers
Turned to collecting flowers after his father died
Just as Darwin was publishing
Compulsive collective actually known to soothe stress & anxiety, gives a sense of personal efficacy even there seems to be none
2. A Prophet on an Island
Louis Agassiz = Swiss geologist → early proposer of ice age theory, best way to teach science is through nature vs books
Every species = “thought of God” → taxonomy = translating His thoughts into human language
Nature holds moral code hidden in hierarchical organization of nature, and thus instructions on how to be better
Rank organisms via structural complexity (especially anatomy), relation to surroundings, social behaviors
Led to very racist views
Held course on Penikese Island in MA for naturalists that DSJ attended
3. A Godless Interlude
Author’s father’s worldview: (In the grand scheme of the universe…) You don’t matter, so live as you please. While other people don’t matter, either, treat them like they do.
How do you find order and sense amidst the Chaos of the world?
Agassiz found it by God
Darwin did not: Natura non favor saltum → Nature does not jump
No hard lines or edges… makes the task of taxonomy seem impossible (so much grey area)
4. Chasing Tail
DSJ → ichthyology, began work on taxonomy of fish, eventually became well-known for discoveries
Asked by Stanford family to help with their “academic experiment” → first president of the university
Built Hopkins Seaside Laboratory
Lots of exotic expeditions, discovered 1k+ fish species
5. Genesis in a Jar
Holotype = preserved specimen of a species that represents it
Cannot be replaced if lost— replacement is a lowly neophyte
DSJ’s obsessive push for discovery may have been fueled by grief over losses of friends, family
Began losing support of Jane Stanford— didn’t think fish were that important— but then she died, and all was well
6. Smash
Disastrous when earthquake destroyed collection of specimen— if unable to identify some when containers broke, would be lost to science until rediscovered
7. The Indestructible
Kafka: the Indestructible = at the bottom of every person, keeps them going wherever they feel like going or not
Not related to optimism— deeper than that, less “self-conscious”
8. On Delusion
The power of telling positively-biased stories about ourselves, holding (perhaps unjustified) positive opinions, “shield of optimism”
→ healthier patients, more successful students and workers
Became marker of “well-adjusted” people, despite kind of being a delusion
Associated with grit, resilience
DSJ = example of how “a good dose of hubris is the best way of overcoming doomed odds”
However! Recent research → might not be all that!
Positive self-illusions usually drive others away
Short term benefit, but masks long term accumulation of pain
Lash out more in response to criticism
9. The Bitterest Thing in the World
DSJ behind Jane Stanford’s death?
Poison found in her system = same substance he used in capture of fish…
Her death never fully investigated
10. A Veritable Chamber of Horrors
DSJ began to champion and spread idea of eugenics
One of first to bring it to America
Advocated for sterilization of the “unfit”
Believed life could “degenerate,” ex. sea squirts devolving from fish
Eugenics overlooks value of variation
Dandelion principle: in some contexts, a dandelion is a weed to be killed; in others, it’s a valuable medicinal herb to be cultivated
Ecological complexity is often beyond human comprehension
Supreme Court ruling in favor of government-dictated forced sterilization still stands
11. The Ladder
Agassiz’s idea of a natural hierarchy with humans/gods at the top = countered by Darwin: no jumps in nature (no rungs on the ladder)
Some animals outperform humans at every possible potential measure of superiority (memory, recently evolved, tool use, altruism)
Perhaps DSJ clung to the concept for the vision and comfort of a natural order
12. Dandelions
Psychiatric facilities from early 1900s = forerunners to concentration camps
Dandelion principle → no single way to rank nature; depends on your perspective
“We matter,” in some of these!
13. Deus ex Machina
DSJ = renowned as a pacifist— but this was motivated by eugenicist ends, the desire to “save” a nation’s best from war
Ignored all the support and labor he received from immigrants, the poor (people he deemed “unfit”) in his scientific work
Why is there no official taxonomic category for fish?
Not actually a deprecate group that broke off from the tree of life, but a collection of many branches from different origins, at different times
Ex. the lungfish is more closely related to a cow, which also has lungs, than to a salmon
Example of convergence
Epilogue
To unlock the other world that exists in this one, all you have to do is stay wary of words