Metaphor: Human evolution is often imagined as a “chain” of being, with successive links connecting ancient apes to modern humans. Gaps in the fossil record are dramatised as “missing links.”
Problem / Misleading Aspect: The chain metaphor smuggles in linearity and inevitability. It suggests that evolution is a straight line of progress, with each species marching dutifully toward us, the supposed endpoint. This erases the messy, relational dynamics of populations: branching, hybridisation, overlapping timelines, and chance actualisations. It also implies that fossils exist to complete our story, rather than being traces of their own contingent lives.
Relational Ontology Correction: Evolution is not a chain but a field of relational possibilities, with populations diverging, converging, and aligning through context-specific potentials. There are no “missing” links, only misconstrued expectations that nature should fit our metaphors of engineering continuity.
Parody (woven through): If evolution really were a chain, palaeontologists would carry spare links in their backpacks to patch the record. Museums would sell extension kits: “Add your own transitional species!” And somewhere in a warehouse, curators would be anxiously polishing the final, golden link that reveals our glorious completion. The humour shows the conceptual misstep: treating evolution as a chain imposes mechanical, linear logic where relational, branching complexity actually reigns.
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