Information Increase in Biological Systems: How Does Adaptation Fit?

Abstract

The notion of progress has been virtually banned from mainstream contemporary biology (Nitecki, 1988, p. viii), even though it still lurks in the background (Ruse, 1988). This is a marked change from earlier views, which saw evolution to be distinctly progressive. The complete explanation of this change is no doubt complex, involving factors dear to historians and sociologists of science, such as the breakdown of the Enlightenment view of science and society, and the education and class commitments of prominent authorities. It is probably too early to historically evaluate these forces with any sort of objectivity. I will focus instead on the internal logic of the shift, and the extent to which it is justified: progress has no theoretical role in contemporary neo-Darwinian orthodoxy. As John Maynard Smith (1988) points out, given two states of a biological system, there is nothing in Fisher’s “fundamental theorem of natural selection” that would allow a biologist to determine which state is earlier. The hardening of the Modem Synthesis of genetics and population biology has permitted the gradual realization that directed processes of any kind, let alone progressive ones, are neither a probable consequence of nor presupposition of its core theses alone.