The Blind Watchmaker
Page 43
To ‘tame’ chance means to break down the very improbable into less improbable small components arranged in series. No matter how improbable it is that an X could have arisen from a Y in a single step, it is always possible to conceive of a series of infinitesimally graded intermediates between them. However improbable a large-scale change may be, smaller changes are less improbable. And provided we postulate a sufficiently large series of sufficiently finely graded intermediates, we shall be able to derive anything from anything else, without invoking astronomical improbabilities. We are allowed to do this only if there has been sufficient time to fit all the intermediates in. And also only if there is a mechanism for guiding each step in some particular direction, otherwise the sequence of steps will career off in an endless random walk.
It is the contention of the Darwinian world-view that both these provisos are met, and that slow, gradual, cumulative natural selection is the ultimate explanation for our existence. If there are versions of the evolution theory that deny slow gradualism, and deny the central role of natural selection, they may be true in particular cases. But they cannot be the whole truth, for they deny the very heart of the evolution theory, which gives it the power to dissolve astronomical improbabilities and explain prodigies of apparent miracle.
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INDEX AND KEY TO BIBLIOGRAPHY
This book is meant to be read from cover to cover. It is not a work of reference. Many items in the index will mean something only to people that have already read the book and want to find a particular place again. In such a book, footnotes are an irritating distraction. The following index, in addition to performing the normal function of an index, is intended to replace footnotes by acting as a key to the bibliography. The numbers in parentheses refer to the numbered books or articles in the bibliography. Other numbers refer to pages in the book. Where an indexed word recurs on a consecutive series of pages, normally only the first page, or the page where a definition will be found, is given.
Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device's search function to locate particular terms in the text.
Acquired characteristics, inheritance of, 409, 422, (22)
Adaptation, 16, 253, 407, (19, 89)
Addressing, memory and genes, 166
Aesop, 273, (21)
Altruism, 379, (20, 52)
Ambulance Effect, 41
Amniotes, 366, (92)
Amoeba, 164, 356
Amplifier analogy, 358
Anderson, D. M., 223, (2)
Andersson, M., 304, (3)
Angel wings, 437
Anteaters, 149
Antennapaedia, 328
Ants, 151–55, (90)
in Panama, 153, 277
Archaeopteryx, 372
Archives, DNA, 173
fidelity of, 174
Argument from Design, 7, 10, (71)
Argyll, Duke of, 355, (73)
Arms race, 252, (21, 23)
cyclical, 304
economic end to, 271
between sexes, 252, 262, (85)
Asdic, 32
Asimov, I., 63–64, (5)
Atkins, P. W., 22, (8)
Australian fauna, 142, (78)
Australopithecus, 324, 329
Bacteria, 164, 186, 249
Baghdad, walk to, 58
Bateson, W., 431, (quoted in 22)
Bats, 30–53, (38, 77)
conference of, 50
detector, 34
diversity of, 33
Doppler sensitivity of, 44
ear muscles, 39
economics, 36
frequency modulated cries, 41
lack of angel wings, 437
problems of, 37, 39, 45, (19)
subjective experience of, 47
Bear, polar, 55, (63)
Beaver, 192, (21)
Bee-flower, 87, 90
Beetle, bombardier, 121, (28)
Bennet, G., 56, (quoted in 63)
Best sellers, 313
Biblical Creation, 359, (quoted in 10)
Biochemical pathway, 241
Biomorphs, 78, 333, 441
Birds, echolocation by, 134
Birmingham, Bishop of, 54–59, 449, (63)
Blacksmith, 410
Blueprint, theory of embryology, 415
Boeing 747, random assembly, 12, 333, 354, (43)
Brain, evolution of, 268, 307, 324, (46)
Cairns-Smith, A. G., 211–36, (13, 14)
Cake, analogy for development, 419
Calluses, 421
Carrier frequency, 40
Cataract, 113
Catastrophism, 343–44
Cheetah, 255
Chemists, 205
Chess, 93
Chimpanzee, 167, 372
Chirp radar, 40
Choice discrepancy, 297
Cicadas, periodical, 140–42, (21)
Clade, 367, 396
Cladism, 365, 392–96, (75)
transformed, 396, 398
Classification, 361–403, (60, 75, 81)
arbitrariness of non-biological, 363
cladistic, 365, 392, (75)
molecular, 382, 389, (37, 72)
numerical, 396, (81)
‘traditional’, 393, (60)
uniqueness of biological, 365, 381
Clay, 213, (13, 14)
‘power’, 218
Clouds, 65, 71
Coadaptation, 240
Coelacanth, 351, (80)
Coincidence, 227, 389
Colour, hypothesis of bat sensation, 49
Combination lock, 12
Compact disc, 159, 217
Complexity
but not with hindsight, 13
/> as heterogeneity of form, 11
as statistical improbability, 12
Computer, explanation of, 20
biomorphs, 72
chess-playing, 93
disc analogy, 245
games, 88
model, 90
typing Shakespeare, 67
underestimated, 90, 225
value of, 105
Constant speedism, 349, 373
Constraints on evolution, 436, (58)
Constructive evolution, 239
Continental drift, 142, (39)
Convergence, evolutionary, 133, (92)
by RNA in test-tubes, 190, (27)
Copernicus, 360
Costs and benefits, 36, 270
Cott, H. B., 267, (16)
Covenant, Ark of the, 154
Creationism, 327, 344, 359, 402, 449, (10, 48, 66, 76)
smuggled into evolution, 355, 449
Creator, 23, 200, 449
Cromwell, O., 325
Crystal, 213
Cuckoo, 58
Cultural evolution, 308
Cumulative selection, 64
DC8, stretched, 333, (22)
DNA information technology, 157–95, (1, 57, 88)
computer disc analogy, 245
conservatism, 177
origin, 198, 224
as ROM, 166
selfish, 164, (20, 21)
Dam
beaver, 194, (21)
clay, 220
Darwin, C., 7, 431, (11, 18, 32)
and Argument from Personal Incredulity, 54, (63)
complex organs, 128
gaps in fossil record, 326, 342–43
inheritance of acquired characteristics, 410
miraculous saltations, 355, (32, 73)
and punctuationists, 319, (22)
sexual selection, 285
species, 337
stasis, 348
Darwin, E., 407
Darwinian, caricature, 437
Darwinism, opposition to, 358, (10, 48, 66, 76)
Dating, fossils, 321
Dawkins, J. E., randomizing device, 66
Dealion, unit of improbability, 230
Design
Argument from, 7, 10, (71)
defined, 29
Development, 75, 240, 415, (57)
De Vries, H., 431
Dewdrop analogy, 181
Digital codes, 159
Dinosaur beds, fake human footprints in, 321, 413, (76)
Dog, evolution of, 57, 81
Dollos’s Law, 132