$\renewcommand{\vec}[1]{\mathbf{#1}}$ $\newcommand{\tens}[1]{\mathrm{#1}}$ $\newcommand{\R}{\mathbb{R}}$ $\newcommand{\suml}{\sum\limits}$ $\newcommand{deriv}[1]{\frac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{d}#1}\,}$ $\newcommand{dd}[1]{\mathrm{d}#1}$
Natural selection is spectacular, chance is not | blogjou

Daniel S. Milo

Good Enough - The Tolerance for Mediocrity in Nature and Society

p. 14
01 Oct 2023

Natural selection is spectacular, chance is not


And yet spectacular as natural selection is in these cases, most birds are primarily generalists, most crickets are simple-minded, most antilopes are guileless, and springboks also pronk in the absence of predators. Species and organisms often survice not because they are are special but because they don’t have to be. On this view, however, they possess no magnetism, no elegance. They tell no story and project no significance into the world. To say that most of what survives was not selected but is just not bad enough to be eliminated is to demote natural selection from its exalted place in the order of life. Natural selection is biology’s greatest intellectual contribution; of course it is prized. Natural law leaves us quaking in wonder, while chance interests only gamblers.