Keith Devens .com

Wolfram on Darwin

Notes on Evolution from Wolfram's A New Kind of Science:

Following the publication of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species in 1859 many scientists began to argue that natural selection could explain all the basic phenomena of biology, and although some religious groups maintained strong resistance, it was widely assumed by the mid-1900's that no other explanation was needed. In fact, however, just how complexity arises was never really resolved, and in the end I believe that it is only with the ideas of this book that this can successfully be done. [p 861] [emphasis mine]

Also:

The Darwinian theory of evolution by natural selection is often assumed to explain the complexity we see in biological systems -- and in fact in recent years the theory has also been increasingly applied outside of biology. But it has never been at all clear just why this theory should imply that complexity is generated. And indeed I will argue in this book that in many respects it tends to oppose complexity. But the discoveries in the book suggest a new and quite different mechanism that I believe is in fact responsible for most of the examples of great complexity that we see in biology. [p 14] [emphasis mine]

So you see I'm not the only one who questions the ability of current evolutionary theories to explain the complexity in nature. The jury is still out on whether Wolfram can do it.

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