About evolution

Oorspronkelijke gepost op 6 maart 2007 op mijn My Opera blog (dat inmiddels niet meer bestaat, maar vandaar in het Engels):

For several months now I've been ploughing my way through The Science of Discworld part three, which is about Evolution, Math, Quantum and Infinity among other things. It's a welcome addition to my other favourites: George A. Kelley's psychology of personal constructs, Robert Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality, and science fiction and philosophy in general. Lately it got me thinking up the quote 'survival of the fittest', which I might elaborate on later:

Evolution is not so much about 'survival of the fittest', as it is about 'extinction of the unfit'

I mean, it's not so much a goal-oriented phenomenon, as just a (possible) description of what's happening. And as long as a species manages to find a way to survive, it will. It doesn't have to be the best way, as long as it works. Damn, there I go, elaborating already...