Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection. Why Things that Survive Survive

The process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring, passing on their advantageous traits.

Before the Industrial Revolution, most peppered moths were light-coloured, camouflaging them perfectly against light-coloured trees and lichens. A few were born with a dark genetic variation.

After the revolution, pollution covered the trees in black soot. The light-coloured moths now stood out and were easily eaten by birds, while the rare dark moths were perfectly camouflaged. The dark moths survived and reproduced, passing on their dark-colour genes––inheritance and selection.

Within a few generations, almost the entire moth population in industrial areas was dark.

What is Evolution and what does it have to do with survival?

Charles Darwin's theory is based on three core principles:

• Variation (individuals in a population are not identical);

• Inheritance (traits are passed from parent to offspring);

• Selection (organisms with traits better suited to the environment will have a higher chance of surviving and reproducing).

Over vast timescales, this simple feedback loop of selection acting on variation can lead to the development of incredibly complex adaptations and the emergence of new species.

It is a blind, algorithmic process with no forward-looking goal. This is the engine behind The Red Queen Effect, where constant adaptation is required just to maintain a relative position against competitors.

How can this theory be applied outside of biology and possibly, for survival?

The principles of evolution apply to more than just biology. Ideas, businesses, and technologies also evolve. The ones that are better "fit" for the current market environment have a higher chance of survival and replication, while the others go extinct.

We can view businesses and ideas as organisms in a competitive ecosystem: just as a species evolves to survive, a business must also evolve.

• Variation: Businesses are constantly creating new products, testing new marketing strategies, or experimenting with new internal processes. These are the variations that are then put to the test.

• Selection: The market acts as the environment––it selects the most fit ideas. A product that is more user-friendly or a strategy that is more efficient will be selected for by the market, leading to its success.

• Inheritance: The successful traits, such as a great user interface or a lean manufacturing process, are then inherited by the next generation of products or copied by other companies.

This constant process of variation and selection is the ultimate key to survival in a competitive world, and it explains why ideas, companies, and technologies are in a constant state of change and adaptation.

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