Increasing Diversity

Kevin Kelly

The invention of life greatly accelerated the diversity in the universe manyfold. From a very few
species 3.8 billion years ago, the number and variety of living species on Earth has increased
dramatically over geological time to the 30 to 100 million now present. This rise has been uneven
in several ways. At certain times in Earth's history large-scale cosmological disruptions (such as asteroid hits) have wiped out gains in diversity. And in specific branches of life diversity sometimes did not advance very much, or even retreated. But overall, in life as a whole over geologic time, diversity has widened. In fact life's diversity has doubled since the dinosaurian era, only 200 million years ago. The growth of biological differences, as a whole, is expanding exponentially, as this rocketing increase can be seen in vertebrates, plants and insects.

Adapted from What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly, published October 2010 by Penguin USA

Kevin Kelly, former editor of Whole Earth Review and Wired Magazine, is the author of Out of Control and What Technology Wants.

www.kk.org

return to Biodiversity contents