
The Song of the Dodo

Because ecosystems tend toward diversity, and markets do the opposite.
Richard Powers • The Overstory: A Novel
I kept coming across a similar pattern: events, well-documented in the historic record, that showed how rising and falling precipitation levels contributed to the increase, decrease, and sometimes the complete removal of populations — and ultimately species — from the planet. This was some of the earliest work of its kind.
Andrew Boyd • I Want a Better Catastrophe: Navigating the Climate Crisis with Grief, Hope, and Gallows Humor

Evolution has no foresight.
Peter Watts • Blindsight (Firefall Book 1)
In the century and a half since Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, we still are stymied by the complexity of the biosphere, and, just as with our financial systems, our efforts to intervene have often led to confounding results.
Jessica C. Flack • Worlds Hidden in Plain Sight: The Evolving Idea of Complexity at the Santa Fe Institute, 1984–2019 (Compass)
Evolution advances by taking available resources and cobbling them together to create new uses.