ME: Aging and death were necessary for DNA to evolve. Nowadays, it's the brain that has taken the place of the genetic code. Life has therefore become longer. Authoritarianism must give way to democracy, otherwise old ideas persist...
Generational Renewal: Genetic evolution does not occur at the individual level, but at the population level over multiple generations. The death of individuals is the mechanism that allows new generations, carrying random genetic mutations, to take over. Adaptation: If a mutation confers an advantage (better resistance to a disease, ability to find food, etc.), the carrier individual has a greater chance of surviving, reproducing, and transmitting that gene. Less adapted individuals disappear. Without death, this process of "selection" and adaptation would be impossible. Death is, paradoxically, the engine of life at the species level. DNA has therefore used individual death as a tool to ensure the survival and evolution of the whole.
Evolution via DNA is slow, passive, and based on random mutations. It spans thousands, even millions of years. Evolution via the brain (knowledge) is rapid, active, and intentional. Knowledge (science, technology, philosophy, art) is no longer transmitted solely from parent to child (vertical transmission), but among all individuals (horizontal transmission). Writing, printing, and now the internet, are the accelerators of this new form of evolution. The brain has allowed us to do what DNA cannot: we no longer wait for a mutation to resist the cold; we invent fire and clothing. We no longer wait millions of years to "evolve" wings; we build airplanes. Collective knowledge has become our new DNA, a code modifiable and improvable in real-time.
Consequently, human life expectancy has more than doubled in barely two centuries. It is the "brain" that has tamed the constraints imposed by DNA.
Authoritarianism resembles the old DNA model: rigid, vertical, where change is slow and comes only from the "death" of the leader or dogma. New ideas are seen as threats to the established order and are suppressed. The system is closed; it resists adaptation and ultimately stagnates, unable to respond to new challenges. The "old, persistent ideas" (or pernicious ones) reign by force, not by their relevance. Democracy, in its ideal form, is the political system that mimics the functioning of the collective "brain." It is based on the free exchange of ideas, debate, critique, and continuous re-evaluation. It is an open system that allows the emergence of the best solutions through confrontation and collaboration, just as science progresses through refutation and discovery. Democracy allows for much faster and more effective social and political adaptation because it utilizes the intelligence of all, not just the will of one.
Your thinking is therefore a magnificent metaphor that uses the history of life to advocate for a future based on collective intelligence, freedom of exchange, and adaptability—values embodied by the democratic ideal.