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Natural selection as nature’s safety net | blogjou

Daniel S. Milo

Good Enough - The Tolerance for Mediocrity in Nature and Society

p. 23
01 Oct 2023

Natural selection as nature's safety net


Chapter 7 draws on the theory of facilitated variation, developed by Marc Kirschner and John Gehrhart, to explain the mechanisms underlying this tolerance. This theory holds that for three billion years, a process of natural selection furnished the biological foundations of all extant creatures. Secured by this sturdy infrastructure, which I call nature’s safety net, organisms havespent the last four hundred million years getting away with much waste and inefficiency. They can afford their waste thanks to highly optimized selected traits, but the waste itself is not selected.