Evolution is undeniably the leading cause of the formation of living matter. We can find life all over Earth. There are undeniable piece...
Evolution is undeniably the leading cause of the formation of living matter. We can find life all over Earth. There are undeniable pieces of evidence that life started not long after the Earth was formed. At the early stages of life, the living matter was composed of simple, single-cell forms. As time went by, we are able to see how the lifeforms started to be more and more complex, until we reach today and see where this evolutionary process has led. It looks like the process of evolution creates more and more complex creatures. It looks like evolution has a direction.
This is because evolution favors the forms which fit more to the environment. We can think that the more complex a lifeform is, the fitter it is to the environment. But we can also deny this theory because there are simple lifeforms all around still, and we even have pieces of evidence that these simple lifeforms have more adaptation capabilities than the complex ones. So adaptation advantages are not the issue that causes evolution to form more and more complex lifeforms.
Then why is evolution capable of creating complexity even if it is not an advantage to adaptation? Because evolution is an information collection process.
Evolution continuously creates different lifeforms. It creates newer and newer information that is collected in the DNA. If a new lifeform fits in the environment, then its information is preserved. But what happens with the information which already existed but does not use? This information is preserved too, because it is easier to suppress information which is not needed than to delete it precisely, without damaging others, still needed information.
So as evolution is processed, more and more information is created, and they are preserved even if they are not used at the moment. As more and more information accumulates, the living system can become more complex by using and/or activating the available information.
And hence, evolution gets direction.
No comments