ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to provide an overall, bird’s eye scan of the role of mutations on evolution, the extraordinary method which Nature has used to create a stunning diversity of animals and plants on Earth. Three billion years of single cell monotony followed by five million (not billion) years of frenzied evolutionary activity. The formation in the way of new species, and the extinction of old, is the ongoing process of evolution. The trip from early Earth to the black box of subjective consciousness has not dealt with details of the landscape on the way, but includes some of the turning points in the evolution of life on this planet. Soren Kierkegaard surely wanted to know something more about the mysteries of the universe when he asked, Where am I and What is this thing called the world? But the universe and all its space cover a lot of territory.
