Evolving Complexity

Some will always see the world as too complex, too beautiful to be here via evolution alone. They will conclude that some force was at work bringing the earth into fruition – an intelligent designer. You could argue that the natural world is too complex for even the most super super being to formulate. So many interdependencies and so many refinements that can only come about through millions of years of gradual adjustments. Life forms would utilise carbon and water in comparable ways, no matter where it spawns. Other planets harbouring life would not be that dissimilar to what we have here.

The electronics revolution provides a comparison to evolution. A humble battery to a complex computer via valves and transistors. With lots of simple switches joined in unison and working in harmony we get a powerful computer. The possibilities increase tremendously with a small increase in the number of switches. If you have an upstairs light and a downstairs one, you have four possible states. Both on. Both off. One off one on. One on one off. With three lightbulbs, you have eight possibilities. As the number of switches increases the permutations go through the roof. To generate graphics and sound, to process information, computers utilise a vast number of basic on/off switches. They accomplish amazing tasks yet are built on basic building blocks. We had to get a single transistor to work reliably first before we could link lots of them together to produce something remarkable. Likewise small organisms had to prosper before they enlarged and linked together to create larger creatures.

If you wanted to build a new computer from different materials, you would not attempt to swap the billions of transistors within the microprocessor all in one go. If you tried this, it would more than likely fail. You would go back to the beginning and build a single transistor out of a different material, get the functionality of that right first. Then gradually string more and more together until a new improved machine is created. This mirrors evolution.

Once the know how has been established it takes hold and spreads rapidly. An organism that operates reliably with a viable successful arrangement propagates quickly and relentlessly. Drop a few algae organisms into a pond and within a few days the whole surface is covered. Progress is only quick once something devised works. Each stage of enhancement takes a long time, testing all the possibilities.