5 ms·
> That arc bends towards increased fitness in a given ecological/economic niche, but no more than that. We went from single-cell -> multi-cell. Has the revers
by leftyted 7y ago
> That arc bends towards increased fitness in a given ecological/economic niche, but no more than that.
We went from single-cell -> multi-cell. Has the reverse ever happened? Maybe "fitness in a given ecological niche" is linked to complexity in some deep way.
I'm not sure how to define complexity. It isn't obvious that humans are "more complex" than cockroaches but it does seem obvious that humans and cockroaches are more complex than viruses and that life has become more complex over the last few billion years.
- TSiege 7y agoActually yes, the reverse does occur in nature. There are viruses that scientists believe originated from more complex life forms into "simpler" ones. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_virus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_virus
- leftyted 7y agoThanks, that's fascinating. Relevant part from wikipedia: > Their discovery and subsequent characterization has triggered some debate concerning the evolutionary origins of giant viruses. The two main hypotheses for their origin are that either they evolved from small viruses, picking up DNA from host organisms, or that they evolved from very complicated organisms into the current form which is not self-sufficient for reproduction. What sort of complicated organism giant viruses might have diverged from is also a topic of debate. One proposal is that the origin point actually represents a fourth domain of life, but this is not universally accepted
- KineticLensman 7y agoSome parasites - although highly evolved for specific hosts - have simplified aspects of their own biology, such as ability to find food, by outsourcing it to their hosts.
- gumby 7y agoWhales lost their legs when they adopted the ocean life. Do you consider them more or less complex? I’m not sure such a framing might even make sense.