When did Darwinian evolution begin?
Darwinian evolution did not go back to the beginning of life. In early times, the process called Horizontal Gene Transfer, the sharing of genes between unrelated species, was prevalent. It becomes more prevalent, the further back you go in time.
In this golden age of pre-Darwinian life, horizontal gene transfer was universal and separate species did not exist.
But then, one evil day, a cell separated itself from the community and refused to share. The Darwinian interlude had begun.
Now, after three billion years, the Darwinian interlude is over. Cultural evolution has replaced biological evolution as the main driving force of change, and we are moving rapidly into the post-Darwinian era, when species will no longer exist, and the evolution of life will again be communal.
