Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Inelegant Evolution

On evolutionary design:
The complexity of developmental regulation isn't a product of design at all, and it's the antithesis of what human designers would consider good planning or an elegant algorithm. It is, however, exactly what you'd expect as the result of cobbling together fortuitous accidents, stringing together helpful scraps into an outcome that may not be pretty, but it works. That's all evolution needs from developmental processes: something that works well enough, no matter how awkward or needlessly complex it may seem.~PZ Myers. SEED magazine.

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