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Evolution is not a random process. Natural selection acts on genetic variability in a population; selection is inherently non-random. A component of variability
by Kaijo 3y ago
Evolution is not a random process. Natural selection acts on genetic variability in a population; selection is inherently non-random. A component of variability is due to random mutation. Just because evolution does not have a priori goals or fixed directionality does not mean it proceeds randomly.
- palata 3y agoRight, yeah obviously the selection part is not random ("the fittest survives"). I guess my point is that there is a tendency to say "evolution chose to make this because that's the optimal solution", where actually evolution may have "missed" the optimal solution. But evolution is not an active process (of something choosing what's optimal), but a passive process (it does change, and some of those (random) changes win). Or am I missing something?
- Kaijo 3y agoI don't think you're missing something, although there are many nuances here. Selection certainly converges on local optima, but yes, there's nothing making a "choice" to do so (except with sexually selected traits and mate choice). It's just how it works. In general it's unsurprising that selection misses hypothetical universal optima for the same reason it's unsurprising we didn't evolve wings even though that'd be an optimal way to escape lions. Evolution moves traits around fitness landscapes heavily contrained by exaptation. But interestingly many highly conserved mechanisms, e.g. essential cell machinery or metabolic pathways shared widely across the tree of life, have been shown to be maintained at absolute energetic and informational optima.