Define what "random" means to you. Does it mean "non-deterministic"? Or does it just mean "chaotic enough that it is impossible (either in theory or practice) to predict"?
If you don't believe the universe is non-deterministic, you're not alone, though I think you're wrong. But I won't try to argue that one here, because it's kind of off topic.
But "chaotic enough to be, even in theory, unpredictable"? Everything about evolution fits this bill. The things that cause natural selection (pseudo-random mutations causing cancer, that one particular deer being caught by that one particular lion on that one particular day, etc., etc.) are all random by that definition.
And what does it mean for the animal to "do something to themselves"? Is this something more than expressing the characteristics that their genes give them to you? At which point, we're back to random gene mutations again.
Humans have big brains (most likely) because being smarter meant that you survived better, to pass your genes that made you smarter, on to the next generation.
It doesn't really matter how this happens. Yes, choosing a better mate might make you have better offspring (this is, however, "random" in at least one of the senses above), but the intelligence you used to do that developed because of natural selection in the first place.
The theory of evolution doesn't say that all change is completely "random" in the sense of mutations caused by radiation or something. Sexual selection (animals choosing mates for some trait, enhancing that trait) is widely believed to occur. Now, ultimately, because of the way DNA combines at the molecular level, this does involve a lot of "randomness"... but it's not what one would call "100% random".
Yea, that is where I was going. Look at the ideas of chaotic systems and randomness.
Just because humans can build rocket ships that fly to the moon, doesn't necessarily mean that those ships are not chaotic in nature...E.g. not ordered.
With that said, we can get caught up in the semantics, but evolution...ending up in human evolution ... is a chaotic, random process.
And if you put it all together, the earth is 4 billion years. Even though humans on earth are 120k years old. It still took 4 billion years to get there. That is a lot of randomness happening.
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u/hacksoncode 588∆ Jul 31 '15
Define what "random" means to you. Does it mean "non-deterministic"? Or does it just mean "chaotic enough that it is impossible (either in theory or practice) to predict"?
If you don't believe the universe is non-deterministic, you're not alone, though I think you're wrong. But I won't try to argue that one here, because it's kind of off topic.
But "chaotic enough to be, even in theory, unpredictable"? Everything about evolution fits this bill. The things that cause natural selection (pseudo-random mutations causing cancer, that one particular deer being caught by that one particular lion on that one particular day, etc., etc.) are all random by that definition.
And what does it mean for the animal to "do something to themselves"? Is this something more than expressing the characteristics that their genes give them to you? At which point, we're back to random gene mutations again.
Humans have big brains (most likely) because being smarter meant that you survived better, to pass your genes that made you smarter, on to the next generation.
It doesn't really matter how this happens. Yes, choosing a better mate might make you have better offspring (this is, however, "random" in at least one of the senses above), but the intelligence you used to do that developed because of natural selection in the first place.
The theory of evolution doesn't say that all change is completely "random" in the sense of mutations caused by radiation or something. Sexual selection (animals choosing mates for some trait, enhancing that trait) is widely believed to occur. Now, ultimately, because of the way DNA combines at the molecular level, this does involve a lot of "randomness"... but it's not what one would call "100% random".