ANSWERS: 2
  • Like Cancer? Heart disease?
  • Evolution cannot look ahead. The phrase "survival of the fittest" is not a very good one anyway, because "fittest" is not well defined. But in so far as it has meaning, it means "the fittest in the environment that exists at this moment". The metaphor of evolution being "intelligent" and "optimising" species can be taken too far. Evolution "improves" species like water "wants" to run down hill - it is a word picture of the way the world works, not a description of a thinking being. The water might get to the sea (what it apparently "wants" to do) much faster if it ran down the north side of the hill rather than the south, but if it falls on the south side, it cannot go even an inch uphill to take the short cut. Likewise, species ,=might be better prepared for the future (what evoution "wants") if they anticipated humans, but it can only react to the environment as it is today.

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