The Plant Yourself Podcast Cancer is a Disease of Identity: Rethinking Evolutionary Biology with Perry Marshall: PYP 433
Oct 12, 2020
58:49
Thoughts on the episode? Let us know.
Perry Marshall is one of the organizers of Cancer & Evolution Symposium, and a "pantomath" of the highest order. An engineer, marketer, writer, and science enthusiast, he has devoted much of the past 10 years to cracking the evolutionary code. Mainstream Darwinism simply can't answer some of our biggest questions, or account for much of the fossil record, according to Marshall. And given that creationists and intelligent design advocates are the main opponents of this understanding of evolution, scientific consensus has refused to admit other possibilities. As Marshall quips, "Evolutionary biology is the field most resistant to evolution."Marshall argues that natural selection is not the only, or even the main factor, in evolution. Instead, the organism itself exerts its will, and is an agent in its own evolution to further its own goals.And that explains why we have such a poor track record when it comes to treating and preventing cancer. We act like cancer cells are stupid, and only engage in random mutation. But what if cancer is a disease of identity?: the cancerous cell gains immortality by killing off its kill switch (apoptosis), and fails to realize that it's part of a larger organism.