Evolution

 2012 04 05

It is necessary to probe deeper than merely to observe that the Fertile Crescent was home to thegreatest collection of domesticable crops and thusanimals. I want to know how all this goodness woundup concentrating in that specific area as opposed to other likely spots. As the Earth formed diamonds seem to have collected in Africa. n like fashion did the molecules that constitute arability congeal in the FC? And if so,why?

 2012 09 07

“Survival of the fittest” is not synonymous with “optimization”. Merely to observe some of the oddball plants and animals that exist will suffice to make this point.

 2012 04 10

I have often seen the terms, “evolution acts” and “evolution selects” in texts on anthropology, palentology, biology, etc., etc. It is a phrase that drifts dangerously close to suggesting “intent”. Evolution is an active process, but it has no intent. The process blindly selects for survivability - that which survives, breeds. No matter how weird the outcome of surviving-ness turns out to be, if it survived evolution “selected” for it. And given the fecund nature of life on this planet many odd, strange and counter-intuitive species have found it easy to survive. “Survival of the fittest” seems to imply some sort of optimisation when in fact only breathing is required. “Survival of the fittest” is a fundamentally misleading term when applied to an environment so fecund that almost anything can survive. “Survival of the Adaptivest” is perhaps a more appropriate term.