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just to you, Ken Beware of trying to explain evolution. Your description is several decades old and modern biologists have a much more nuanced view, including some evidence that behavioral changes can actually be transmitted to offspring. Their technical descriptions are far beyond my understanding. But I know enough experts to realize that when it comes to evolution, I should only describe it in broad terms. it is not quite as simple as Darwin imagined. try https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_developmental_biology don On Fri, Sep 11, 2015 at 7:41 AM, Ken Friedman <[log in to unmask] > wrote: > You are right. I expressed myself in a clumsy way with respect to > evolution. The term “random selection” is imprecise. I was jumbling random > drifting, natural selection, and I should probably have been more careful > even at that. Evolution takes place when mutations occur. The process of > mutation is random. Most mutations are not viable. On rare occasions, > generally extremely rare, a mutation comes along that is suited to an open > niche in the environment. Those are the mutations that do not prove to be > non-viable. Mutations that thrive in an available niche survive to give > rise to the next versions of species until they, too, mutate to become > something yet again. It is not a case of “selection” in the case of anyone > or anything intentionally “selecting” the mutated entity. Drift is better > in that sense, and the creature that drifts into an appropriate place in a > fitness landscape thrives. In this sense, viability and non-viability are > extremely contingent on time, place, and context. Don Norman Prof. and Director, DesignLab, UC San Diego [log in to unmask] designlab.ucsd.edu/ www.jnd.org <http://www.jnd.org/> ----------------------------------------------------------------- PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]> Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design -----------------------------------------------------------------