That statement makes no sense to me but neither does the popular idea that species evolve to compete with each other limited only by immediate material resource

That statement makes no sense to me but neither does the popular idea that species evolve to compete with each other limited only by immediate material resources. I imagine some mechanism of foresight or conservatism must develope in a diverse population for the population to survive in total. Such a mechanism may have had to be present in the earliest lifeforms or else long periods of accumulating complexity and diversity, seem open to frequent and potentially unrecoverable upheaval, by the temporary competitiveness of mutations fit only for immediate material demands.