Now thought of in relation to life/living things
Inanimate things evolve too - even the watch made by the blind watchmaker.
Examples of things whose evolution has been noticeable in my life time:
Packaging, esp batteries (no bubble packs now) & cans
Cars
Ready meals, esp spag carbonara recipes
Prices - esp supermarkets; a whole new economics here?
Evolution in one area leads to redundancy in another eg cans with ring pulls means no use for can openers
Competition not just in prices but in other aspects of the shopping experience. How to predict which will come to the fore?
Evolution leads sometimes to convergence, sometimes to divergence eg cars are now much more similar to each other than the different models were in 1900; Formula 1 distinguished only by the adverts & colour, not by shape, never mind the mechanics
Partly because 'we' copy good ideas; partly because we think of modifications to 'solve' problems with existing designs. Partly because its easier to conform eg in the standardised dimensions of household appliances to fit into, yet allow diversity in, fitted kitchens
The biological theory of evolution through natural selection, as espoused, tends to confuse change through space & time. Can Einsteins relativity help here?
Was Darwin conscious of the attempt to fuse these two? His early science - geological - involved transects across space to deduce processes through time
He journeyed round the world, marvelling at the differences he saw; his theory coalesced in the Galapagos, isolated in space AND THEREFORE IN TIME? or
Darwin voyaged through space but concluded that the variations he saw were due to voyages through time - the Galapagos were isolated in space changes took place only in time) ?
Global warming may cause Scottish alpine plants to migrate to higher altitudes rather than adapt their phenotype etc etc. 'It is easy to move, hard to change' (John RG Turner Spectator 29 June 2002 p37)
What does this say about human migration/adaptation? Think about sickle cell/malaria; advantage accrues only to those who stay in malarial areas. And so we come to skin colour?
Not just space v time but also many v one intelligence; focus may be on Bill Gates, Microsoft & Windows but 'he' obviously is just the focus for many many people working on computers & bits of programming, not just at Microsoft, working out what all their various needs have in common & recognising these commonalities, bringing them all together in one system - WINDOWS - which different people with very different aims & objectives can use in myriad ways
This raises the question of whether some centralising force is necessary, or if all these people, beavering away on their own concerns, somehow coalesce in a process not unlike morphic resonance or maybe Adam Smiths hidden hand
'It is almost as bad as the Kentucky State School Board, which a few years ago replaced the word 'evolution' in its biology curriculum with 'change over time'' Antony Beevor Spectator Diary 29 June 2002 p8, complaining about political correctness, but what is wrong with this particular usage?
