MEPX
Chapter 1 of 10All chapters
  1. 1The mechanism
  2. 2Where variation comes from
  3. 3Selection
  4. 4Chance
  5. 5How species form
  6. 6The evidence
  7. 7Common misunderstandings
  8. 8Deep time
  9. 9Human evolution
  10. 10Why it matters practically

Chapter 1 of 10

The mechanism

Three conditions, one consequence.

What is required

Individuals vary. Some of that variation is inherited. Some variants leave more offspring than others. Wherever those three hold, the population changes over generations, necessarily.

  • No goal, no plan and no striving is involved.
  • The same logic applies to bacteria, languages and code.

Populations change, not individuals

An organism cannot evolve during its life. What changes is how common each variant is in the population, which is why evolution is a statistical process.