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This implies that evolution has a goal and that we are that goal. This shows a fundamental misunderstanding of evolution of natural selection that is common.
by mrunkel 6y ago
This implies that evolution has a goal and that we are that goal. This shows a fundamental misunderstanding of evolution of natural selection that is common.
Who is to say that viruses won't be the end result of life on the planet earth?
Complex life <> more evolved life. It's just differently evolved.
- TeMPOraL 6y agoI know that evolution doesn't have a goal. I may have antropomorphosized it too much, but my goal was to follow a sort of temporal/casual trail that we find interesting. The way I imagine my idea is that, if you pick a species and its interesting descendants, and order on a timeline like such: A --> B --> C --> D What really happens is more like: [bunch of other spinoffs] ^ | A --> B --> ... And that some of those spinoff could be viruses. Imagine a mutation to A causes a bunch of functionality in the organism to shut down (and in subsequent generations disappear), while leaving a viable organism. For a sufficiently uncomplicated A, the result of such mutation could be a bundle of genes wrapped in a shell with an injection mechanism. That's a virus.
- astrange 6y agoThere are some viruses that are so large they're as complicated as actual living things. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucleocytoviricota https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucleocytoviricota However, none of them seem to be related to anything on the official tree of life.