Sep 5– From The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin (1859)
Summary: Things go extinct when other species or their environment change and they can't keep up.
Commentary: I think most people focus too much on the "positive" aspects of evolution, or even assign it a kind of consciousness. They act like a goat goes, "I'd survive better if I had a bigger horn," and then grow a bigger horn (which is almost Lamarckian), where it's really more: this goat happens to have a bigger horn which happens to be helpful. Of course, it's equally possible a bigger horn (requiring more resources and/or being more unwieldy) could be a disadvantage, and lead to more goats dying. In the end, the goats don't all work to get bigger horns, the big horn goats just die less/breed more, and eventually replace the smaller horn ones. It's the same as how if you're trying to roll a five or above you're better off with an eight-sided die than a six. The die isn't "doing" anything, it's just existing in a way that's more compatible with the condition.
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