Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Natural selection is random but artificial selection is not

Contrast between natural selection (NS) and artificial selection (AS). Artificial selection has human mind as the selector. It was used by Darwin as an analogy to natural selection. Darwin used the term once in his work On the Origin of Species:

Slow though the process of selection may be, if feeble man can do much by artificial selection, I can see no limit to the amount of change, to the beauty and complexity of the co adaptations between all organic beings, one with another and with their physical conditions of life, which may have been effected in the long course of time through nature's power of selection, that is by the survival of the fittest.

NS AS

Intention.............................no yes

Purpose..............................no yes

Selector...............................random non random/mind

Selection process................non random non random

Selection outcome...............random non random

Overall.................................Random Non random


Next time you hear someone says that natural selection is the opposite of random, ask him what then is artificial selection? Mind and no mind are opposites, and if one is non random, its opposite can only be random.



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