

DNA studies topple the ladder of complexity (2014) - dnetesn
http://nautil.us/issue/9/time/evolution-youre-drunk?utm_source=tss&utm_medium=desktop&utm_campaign=linkfrom

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ZeroFries
This should be obvious? Complexity isn't an adaptation if it does not prove
enough of an advantage to justify the increased maintenance and construction
costs.

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drvortex
Biologist here : This belief of increasing complexity is just a relic of the
times when we thought humans were the pinnacle of evolution.

It is a basic misunderstanding of evolution. The single-celled organisms of
today have evolved longer. Their DNA has been mutating, adapting for 10-times
longer than ours (as a species) has been.

There is no reason to think that they would be any more simpler than us. They
are just adapted to different environments than us.

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nsns
According to Darwin's theory, don't organisms evolve simply in order to adapt
(by natural selection) to their environment? Where did this belief in growing
complexity come from? (Could it be perhaps just a crude reflection of the
progressivist ethos of Modernity?)

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programnature
at least 2 forces come to mind - 1\. Humans want to believe they are special
in some way 2\. Theory of evolution is under "selective pressure" to explain
complexity since the watchmaker analogy

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programnature
Interesting that Wolfram predicted this in 2002, was mocked by Cosma Shalizi
as having "absolutely no understanding of evolution"

