The Red Queen

[Berto]

I'm reading a book, The Red Queen, which tries to answer the question of why Humans have sex, and if it is a defining factor of human survival and human nature in our evolutionary path.

I read this part and thought you'd all enjoy it:

The discovery [that a man named Van Valen made] was that the probability a family of animals would become extinct does not depend on how long that family has already existed. In other words, species do not get better at surviving (nor do they grow feeble with age, as individuals do). Their chances of extinction are random.

The significance of this discovery had not escaped Van Valen, for it represented a vital truth about evolution that Darwin had not wholly appreciated. The struggle for existence never gets easier. However well a species may adapt to its environment, it can never releax, because its competitors and its enemies are also adapting to their niches. Survival is a zero-sum game. Success only makes one species a more tempting target for a rival species. Van Valen's mind went back to his childhood and lit upon the living chess pieces that Alice encountered beyond the looking glass. The Red Queen is a formidable woman who runs like the wind but never seems to get anywhere.

I'm 70 pages in and hooked... I love this kind of geeky stuff.

Thought it was kind of fitting here. Now get hustlin..

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Red-Queen-Evolution-Human-Nature/dp/0140245480"]Amazon.com: The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature (9780140245486): Matt Ridley: Books[/ame]

 

[turbolapp]

Nice. That passage could some up pretty much anything in existence and certainly this business.