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Evolution by natural selection: Difference between revisions
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Now, if you’re the COO of an established financial services organisation, we respectfully submit that throwing your infants unchaperoned into the mindless ravenous maw of nature to see how they get on while you shuffle off your mortal coil is ''not'' what you should be aspiring to put your organisation through. Evolving involves ''you'' dying, and the — ah — lion’s share of ''your children'' dying too, for the betterment of some unseen replicating subcomponent of the greater whole.<ref>Though, come to think of it, what — or ''who'' — might ''that'' be?</ref> Dear COO: your job is to ''protect'' your firm from the red claws and teeth of nature, not to ''feed'' them. | Now, if you’re the COO of an established financial services organisation, we respectfully submit that throwing your infants unchaperoned into the mindless ravenous maw of nature to see how they get on while you shuffle off your mortal coil is ''not'' what you should be aspiring to put your organisation through. Evolving involves ''you'' dying, and the — ah — lion’s share of ''your children'' dying too, for the betterment of some unseen replicating subcomponent of the greater whole.<ref>Though, come to think of it, what — or ''who'' — might ''that'' be?</ref> Dear COO: your job is to ''protect'' your firm from the red claws and teeth of nature, not to ''feed'' them. | ||
=== | ===How evolution works=== | ||
In essence,<ref>See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Darwinism</ref> [[evolution]]ary theory is that organisms evolve through a mindless, [[iterative]] process — an [[algorithm]]. Each iteration has three components: | |||
In essence,<ref>See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Darwinism</ref> [[evolution]]ary theory is that organisms evolve through a mindless, iterative process — an [[algorithm]]. Each iteration has three components: | |||
*'''Variation''': Random but minor variations in organisms, which happen through ''recombination'' (mixing of parental genes) or ''mutation'' (errors in copying genes). | *'''Variation''': Random but minor variations in organisms, which happen through ''recombination'' (mixing of parental genes) or ''mutation'' (errors in copying genes). | ||
*'''Selection''': Selection of those variations that are best suited | *'''Selection''': Selection of those variations that are best suited to the prevailing environment — this will happen naturally; those variants that are less suited will, [[ipso facto]], fare worse and eventually die out. | ||
*'''Heredity''': The features conferring fitness tend to be retained and passed on in successive versions of each reproducing organism. This happens through parental combination. | *'''Heredity''': The features conferring fitness tend to be retained and passed on in successive versions of each reproducing organism. This happens through parental combination. | ||
The process is | The process is one of “trial-and-error” or “generate-and-test”: The problem is how best to survive and replicate in the given environment; the “best” solutions for the process continuously generate new trials, test them, discard failures, and keep the successes. | ||
[[File:Path dependence 1.png|thumb|Each step constrains the possible directions for the next step.]] | [[File:Path dependence 1.png|thumb|Each step constrains the possible directions for the next step.]] | ||
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::(ii) evolving organisms consuming resources and competing with each other; or | ::(ii) evolving organisms consuming resources and competing with each other; or | ||
::(iii) extraordinary climactic events (earthquakes, volcanoes, meteorites, invasions of “aliens”). | ::(iii) extraordinary climactic events (earthquakes, volcanoes, meteorites, invasions of “aliens”). | ||
===The contrarian piece=== | |||
Now, that out the way, try this. Evolution by natural selection — [[Darwin’s Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life - Book Review|Darwin’s dangerous idea]] — is the greatest of all scientific achievements — or ''not science at all''? | |||
Let’s see if this works. A scientific theory must tell us something about the world: it must make a prediction that does not follow as a matter of irrefutable logic, that could, in theory, be false — thereby cutting down the number of possible outcomes, and making those that remain more predictable. It must be, in {{author|Karl Popper}}’s argot, ''[[falsifiable]]''. Not false, but ''able to be false''. ''F= M*A'' is a “[[synthetic statement]]”. You need evidence to support it. It is “[[Falsification|falsifiable]]”, because an outcome where force does not equal mass * acceleration is possible. Indeed, Einstein found some examples. By contrast, 2 + 2 = 4 is not falsifiable: it is true ''by definition'' — it is an [[analytic statement]]. For 2 + 2 ''not'' to equal 4 would mean changing the meaning of “2”, “plus”, or “4”. Assuming we are using mathematical notation correctly, 2=2=4 is ''[[a priori]]'' true. In this way, mathematics may be the ''language'' of science, but it is not science ''itself''. | |||
Now, in which camp does the theory of evolution by natural selection fall? If is falsifiable? The man who first discovered it, before Charles Darwin, thought not. Responding to Darwin’s gracious concession of his priority, Patrick Matthew said: | |||
{{quote|“To me the conception of this law of Nature came intuitively as a self-evident fact, almost without an effort of concentrated thought. Mr. Darwin here seems to have more merit in the discovery than I have had; to me it did not appear a discovery. He seems to have worked it out by inductive reason, slowly and with due caution to have made his way synthetically from fact to fact onwards; while with me it was by a general glance at the scheme of Nature that I estimated this select production of species as an [[a priori]] recognisable fact— an axiom requiring only to be pointed out to be admitted by unprejudiced minds of sufficient grasp.”<ref>PArtick Matthey, writing to the editor of the ''[http://darwin-online.org.uk/Variorum/1861/1861-xv-c-1866.html Gardeners’ Chronicle]'' — seriously — May 12, 1860.</ref>}} | |||
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