Chance And Natural Selection

Abstract

Abstract One school of modern artists has been experimenting with a new technique of painting a picture. Standing several feet back from a canvas they pelt it with pigment, so the little drops fall in a haphazard arrangement of dots, dribbles, and splashes on the flat surface. We can imagine that the overwhelming majority of these compositions turn out to be failures as works of art and the conscientious artist quickly disposes of them. But once in a long while the paint lands in a way that creates a pleasing pat­ tern of shape and color. This one is selected and preserved. The chances of a fortuitous result increase with the number of tries; given enough tries, in fact, every possible combination of color and pattern would be produced. If the experiment were con­tinued over untold generations, perhaps the trillionth time would re-create Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa or Van Gogh’s Self Por­trait! In this way time can bring about arrangements of great improbability, but unless there is some mechanism for recogniz­ing and selecting out the rare favorable ones, the entire process will produce nothing of lasting value.