17 Nov 2007
Organisms and Species, Adaptation and Evolution
For a friend who consistently misses the difference between natural selection and adaptation (and yes, I will continue to call you out when you say an organism evolves):
Adaptation-Executers, not Fitness-Maximizers:
No human being with the deliberate goal of maximizing their alleles’ inclusive genetic fitness, would ever eat a cookie unless they were starving. But individual organisms are best thought of as adaptation-executers, not fitness-maximizers.
