Jurassic Park: Horizontal Evolution

The heart of the universe is change, for
it is in perpetual flux. Everything that is
regenerates but never copies itself.
Everything that is never is that what it is
by remaining identical to itself, for change
is difference. And although everything
"repeats" itself within each generation, it
does not do so by following a pre-
established model with Platonic
rubberstamp. The universe repeats itself
(regenerates) compelled by the differential
motion of its innermost being: change.
Change—which constitutes everything
that exists—is more than an accidental
quality. It is a moving force—flux. Thus
generational repetition is never the
"identical" recording of multiple subjects:
the universe does not clone! It produces
in an evolutionary manner, it produces
differences; familial resemblances only
constitute the repetition of flowing
structures restrained by the limits of
matter. Evolution, metamorphosis, change
are not abrupt occurrences. However,
matter, though confined to spatial
location, also changes, since there can be
no repetition without difference as its
condition. Difference is the motor of
Repetition.

As Charles Darwin observed, there is "evolution," and the need for every existing singularity to adapt
to external conditions. Nevertheless, evolution is not solely a matter of adaptation and survival, but of
"expenditure" as well. The universe is a desiring-machine. It produces desire and desires desire,
always creating an unaccountable surplus. There is no universe as a whole (that is as the abstract,
definable unity under whose concept all differences disappear), but rather an intertwined web of
singularities that act as desiring-forces of action and reaction.
Traditional science (departing from Aristotelian premises) has entrenched the belief in some
mysterious, teleological and necessary course toward which the universe aims throughout its
regeneration. And religion, along with other supernatural paths of thought, has the final explanation
for the truths which escape analytical Aristotelian minds. Biology, the most remarkable instance, has
contributed to this fossilization of thinking, or "Westernization" of life, by enunciating the so-called
"evolutionary chain" and "ecological need" of determined singularities in determined "ecosystems": to
which the notion of ecological equilibrium is indebted.
However, there is nothing else but an excessive creativity in genetic repetition. And every being,
though dependant on the existence of others, does not do so to achieve a predetermined biological
objective, but because they are desiring production and production of desire. Every singularity
produces within itself a monstrous surplus that cannot be controlled or manipulated: production of
hunger, of excrements, of copulations; production of rage; production of productions....
In accepting Darwin's Theory of Evolution, we find ourselves obliged to admit that the evolution of
life does not carry itself out in a linear (vertical) manner. Instead it occurs chaotically, as we can still
see it happening today in the Amazonian rainforest.
New singularities are not generated to satisfy a need (whether theological or teleological, or of any
other nature for that matter). In other words, singularities are not created to satisfy a lack; they
repeat because change is at the core of all generating processes.
It must be noticed that Nature, within change, reports the total disappearance of some of her
creatures (dinosaurs, for instance) while others rejuvenate like blood to monstrously reappear (as
exceptional "freaks"). Nonetheless, they all remain deeply akin by virtue of the flux. The universe does
not "lack" anything, but produces "lack" as an excess of desiring production. Lack is desire and desire
does not lack anything.
All singularities do not evolve at the same rate, their speed and desires vary in intensity. Hence we
come to the realization that thanks to difference there are not "species" in a restricted sense, but just a
long chain of events to whose imperatives every living creature must accommodate. Evolution
becomes horizontal. All singularities are concerned with their survival and produce desire, creating
new exuberant forms at the measure of the velocity and intensity of their desiring production—
sometimes faster, sometimes slower.
Yes, the universe is constantly evolving, but horizontally, coming from "nowhere" and heading
"nowhere." Evolution is infinite, as it were. Evolution for the sake of desiring production.
As in the film Jurassic Park, nature always finds a way; that is, the way of life, generation,
reproduction—through excess.
What went wrong in The Island of Dr. Moreau, in Jurassic Park? Curiously, both films are about
genetic experiments which take place in similar isolated spaces, islands: Apollo's place of birth and
Daedalus's workshop.... In both Dr. Moreau's island and Jurassic Park, scientists discover the
generating principle (causa primae) of the universe and their "safe" conceptual foundations are
wobbled leaving them with monsters bursting out everywhere.
Architectonically, Darwin's pyramidal evolutionary chain becomes Daedalus' labyrinthine—madly
horizontal—evolution.

Harrison Mujica-Jenkins