Goal of evolution

From PhiloWiki

Is there a goal to evolution, or is it just a blind mechanism? Is man the goal of evolution?

Man is not the goal of evolution

There is no end-goal to evolution, no progression toward some end-goal. The product of evolution is not sentient beings with free will. Sharks have done fine for over 100 million years. The dinosaurs did fine for tens of millions of years. Viruses have always done well, as have insects, protozoa, etc. It was only through the lucky happenstance that a meteor hit the earth and reset the clock, wiping out hundreds or thousands of perfect killing machines that mammals were able to evolve from tiny rodent-sized creatures to man.

After many extinction events, nature seemed to stumble across intelligence as a trait to try out. Intelligence is very expensive biologically – keeping our brains warm and fed is a not-small part of our metabolic requirements. Nothing says intelligence is the best trait for species survival. Not until we live for another 50 million years will I believe that (if I live that long). I think man has great capacity, but unfortunately also has the extreme likelihood of being one of the least successful species on the planet – going from the rise of home sapiens only 50-100K years ago to the very real possibility of our self-extinction in our lifetimes.

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