3 ms·

Multicellular life seems to be one of the biggest stumbling blocks. Life appeared very soon after it was possible, but a pretty huge chunk of the time since was

• sliken 8y ago
  Why? Once the earth is covered by single cell organisms there's going to be an incentive for even the simplest of cooperation. Quorum sensing can help reproduction, survival, collecting food, surviving drying out, etc. Once cells loosely cooperation that starts providing more specialization. Cells that have thicker cell walls, or better offense/defense, or more expensive pathways for breaking down more complex chemicals, etc. Seems like the natural tendency would be towards more complexity heading towards where you have cells that specialize being outside (and help control PH and water) vs inside (that specialize in other things taking advantage of the ideal conditions). Keep in mind how many single cell organisms you can have in a single drop, how many drops are in the ocean, and how long a billion years is. Even a small competitive advantage turns into exponential growth for the community of cells. The noise of random mutations is going to eventually lead to a cooperation between cells that's going to cause a feedback loop. Cell -> multi cellular seems easy and obvious compared to no cells -> cells.