From: fudley (fuddley@fastmail.fm)
Date: Wed Feb 02 2005 - 10:13:48 MST
On Tue, 1 Feb 2005 "Phil Goetz" <philgoetz@yahoo.com> said:
> the point of the book is that this increase in the
> complexity of the most complex species is due
> to a random walk
The random walk of mutation is only half the story of evolution, the
other half is non random natural selection.
> with a left wall
Gould makes much of this left wall right wall difference and it’s true
that there is a minimum complexity for life, so at that point any change
must be in the direction of more complexity, but it seems to me that
stopped being a significant factor in the workings of evolution two
billion years ago or more.
> not to any inherent drive in evolution towards
> increasing complexity.
And I’ve heard Gould say that many times but was never very impressed
with it, it seems to me he’s making a distinction without a difference.
There is a process on this planet that causes the most complex organisms
now to be more complex and smarter than past animals, and it you don’t
want to call it a drive toward complexity then call it something else,
but that’s what it is.
John K Clark
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