Is evolution a one way street?

I am finally finding some peace in following the discussions and cussions regarding the pending legislation intended to address the needs of our nation's people for reliable attention to pain and suffering from illness. The peace I am finding  seems to be coming from going back to my foundations and years of teaching in the humanism of William Osler*.

Is evolution a one way street?  An article by Carl Zimmer in the New York Times cites a report that suggests that is the case. This is a belief that has been long held among evolutionary scientists. A careful read of this study of a single glucocoticoid receptor lends credence to general application.

Then why do creatures have the capacity and, for most of us, the drive to look backward?

"The beauty and genius of a work of art may be reconceived, though its first material expression be destroyed, a vanished harmony may yet again inspire the composer; but when the last individual of a race of living things breathes no more, another heaven and another earth must pass before such a one can again be." --- Charles William Beebe

We search the memories stored in our brains and, in the case of humans, those stored in various media.  Indeed why the drive to teach the young old ways? Clearly not Aristotle's blank slate.  And do not believe this is a trait limited to humans. ( One only has to observe the maturation of kittens and puppies who are first taught from the day of birth by parents;  then as adults, often many years later, to suddenly repeat a behavior from kitten/puppyhood.)

These are obviously useful traits or evolution would have tossed them long ago. Personally I think the motivating rewards are the complex feelings of security in attachment and identity.

Maybe as we understand the inevitability of the organism going forward and no return,  we just want to take along what we love. I am content with that and will let the laws of nature sort out the rest.

*A gift of the technology of Google previously published writings are available on Google Books for download and most for free. I highly recommend Aequanimitas and Counsels and Ideals. I also just downloaded a free copy of the 1910 Flexner Report from Carnege which described the atrocious conditions of medical care in North America. It's publication was the preamble to saving the profession, and most important, the science of medicine.