this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2023
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Uh, not random. Evolution has a system.
Evolution is just random. The "system" is just the good random changes live and the bad don't.
It's a bit more complex than that, with multiple levels of feedback with DNA (potentially even with the nucleotide) and a damn complicated process while creating descendants (vs. just clones).
The processes behind evolution are random. What makes evolution distinct is that random changes don’t all have an equal chance of surviving. The changes are random, but the advantageous changes will have a higher chance of reproducing. But the changes did occur randomly before they were passed on to the offspring.
Imagine a roulette wheel with twice as many red spaces as there are black. Even though each roll is random, the average will still come out to 2/3 red over time. And that average is essentially evolution being derived from randomness; Each individual roll is random, but trends will appear over time as some rolls are more likely to succeed than others.
The system is just a representation of the aggregate.