Quotes About Evolution

So we are a little better than animals, after all—but perhaps not by much.

To value a person consider the difference between how he or she was impressive at the first encounter and the most recent one.

and, although it was a less ambitious version than initially envisioned

all we need is the ability to accept that what we have on our hands is better than what we had before

take advantage of a valuable alternative that is superior to what precedes it

To put it again in other words: it is rather a good thing to lose arguments.

the time difference between formal discovery and first implementation

Even trial and error are a form of barbell.

in the long term, social and economic evolution nastily takes place by surprises, discontinuities, and jumps.

many historians looking at the record have been taken aback by the swiftness of the change.

in a trial and error mode, you exercise rationality by not looking in the same place twice.

To understand progress: all places we call ugly are both man-made and modern, never natural or historical.

Scranton showed that we have been building and using jet engines in a completely trial-and-error experiential manner, without anyone truly understanding the theory. Builders

Trial and error is freedom.

The problem is that our ideas are sticky: once we produce a theory, we are not likely to change our minds—so those who delay developing their theories are better off.

Change for the sake of change, as we see in architecture, food, and lifestyle, is frequently the opposite of progress.

the drastic changes brought about by unpredictable discoveries

too high a rate of mutation prevents locking in the benefits of previous changes: evolution (and progress) requires some, but not too frequent, variation.

The dream of having computers behave like humans is coming true, with the transformation, in a single generation, of humans into computers.

The future ain't what it used to be," Berra

Further, the random element in trial and error is not quite random, if it is carried out rationally, using error as a source of information. if every trial provides you with information about what does not work, you start zooming in on a solution - so every attempt becomes more valuable, more like an expense than an error. And of course you make discoveries along the way.

Even now, we are using technology to reverse technology.

Next let me show how the future is mostly in the past.

So the longer a technology lives, the longer it can be expected to live.