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Social Darwinists proposed that all humans began by facing a fair struggle over scarce resources: money, jobs, esteem. Some gained the upper hand in this contest, not because of improper advantages or luck but because they were intrinsically better than those they outpaced. The rich were not better from a moral point of view. They were,
... See moreAlain de Botton • Status Anxiety (NON-FICTION)
Evolution has no foresight.
Peter Watts • Blindsight (Firefall Book 1)
The success of the 'Origin' may, I think, be attributed in large part to my having long before written two condensed sketches, and to my having finally abstracted a much larger manuscript, which was itself an abstract. By this means I was enabled to select the more striking facts and conclusions. I had, also, during many years followed a golden
... See moreCharles Darwin • The Autobiography of Charles Darwin
Because no other explanation was possible under our then state of knowledge, I argued in favour of sea-action; and my error has been a good lesson to me never to trust in science to the principle of exclusion.
Charles Darwin • The Autobiography of Charles Darwin
Lamarckism, an evolutionary theory that Darwinism superseded, was the analogue of inductivism. It attributed biological adaptations to the inheritance of characteristics that the organism had striven for and acquired during its life.)
David Deutsch • The Fabric of Reality

Ross answered, “it’s like giving dynamite to children.” Twotimer smiled again. I could tell exactly what he was thinking—because, in my mind, the word evil was anchored to that smile. “Darwin talked about survival of the fittest,” Twotimer explained to me as we walked through the museum’s collection of pre-twentieth century art. “In earlier times,
... See moreNeil Strauss • The Game
Guy: I’m 100% certain that our species, like every other, will go extinct. I no longer put a date on when our species will go extinct. I just say, “in the short term.” It will be “faster than expected” because that’s the tag line for almost every newspaper article I see these days with respect to climate change: basically, fast things happening
... See moreAndrew Boyd • I Want a Better Catastrophe: Navigating the Climate Crisis with Grief, Hope, and Gallows Humor
the general principle of what Darwin called “gradualism”—incremental changes over time—may