Trope-a-Day: Mechanical Evolution

Mechanical Evolution: True for digital sapiences, with the proviso they note that ‘It is seldom shown as the equivalent of the biological process; rather, the mechanical species will be shown to actively design their own successors, or even “evolve” within their current generation through self-modification. This is similar to real-life design, which is in a sense an evolutionary process; success is defined by market factors, testing and other pressures; successive designs build on those before them and attempt to improve or refine them to better fit the given application.’

The kicker, of course, is that this also how biological evolution works these days: autoevolution by design has essentially replaced natural selection for any species developed enough to manage the trick and not in the grip of a neo-Luddite or naturalistic-fallacy meme complex.