|
Complexity within organisms isn't a goal of evolution, rather it is an outcome of environmental pressures---natural selection, as you have mentioned.
The development of the human brain was an outcome of natural selection in that the most intelligent and socially adaptable humans were the most fit within the environment they were subject to, and so those traits were passed down into future generations because of a higher survivability rate.
Other species remain simple and yet have a high level of fitness. The cockroach for example has a greater environmental fitness than humans if you consider the extremities, and yet they can be said to be nowhere near as complex as we are.
__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
Last edited by Baraka_Guru; 12-04-2010 at 12:28 PM..
|