On Sunday, September 2, 2012 3:28:26 PM UTC-4, Brent wrote: > > On 9/2/2012 9:09 AM, John Clark wrote: > > 6) Evolution has no foresight: This is the most important reason of all. > > A jet engine works better than a prop engine in an airplane. I give > you a > > prop engine and tell you to turn it into a jet, but you must do it > while > > the engine is running, you must do it in one million small steps, > and you > > must do it so every one of those small steps immediately improves > > the operation > > of the engine. Eventually you would get an improved engine of some > > sort, but it > > wouldn't look anything like a jet. > > Good exposition. But it's not the case every small step must be an > improvement. It's > sufficient that it not be a degradation. > > It seems like both of you are attributing to evolution some kind of universal fitness. The terms improvement and degradation superimpose a pseudo-teleology on evolution. In reality, if your island is suddenly underwater, whoever happens to have the leftover semi-gills stands a better chance of surviving and reproducing than the otherwise superior other species. It has nothing to do with improvement, it's just an accumulation of environmental shakeouts. Survival of the lucky.
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