Translation Rights TQE / The Ramdomness of Creation. The Evolution of Complex Life and Intelligence

Which way is evolution headed? For a long time, scientists have resisted stating that evolution follows an “ascending” path. This is the reason why authors such as Richard Dawkins or Stephen J. Gould, so confronted in other matters, agree in comparing evolution to an erratic and random path.

The biologist Ambrosio García Leal makes a critical contribution to this crucial mystery with the notion of the “bomb of complexity”, which promotes phenotypic plasticity – or the capacity to modify physiology, anatomy or behavior according to environmental requirements – and explains why organisms seem to distance themselves more and more from minimum complexity and how they manage to successfully face unpredictable environments. He also introduces a new concept of Darwinist individuality, compatible with the integration of individuals in cooperative associations that are susceptible to being favored by natural selection. Sex and the capacity to learn play a fundamental role in becoming independent from environmental uncertainty.

Ambrosio García Leal (Barbate, 1958) is a biologist. He has a doctorate degree in the Philosophy of Science from the UAB and has done research in the fields of ecology, biothermodynamics and the theory of complex adaptive systems. In recent years, his interests have derived towards the philosophy of biology and the evolution of sex in Darwinist theory. He has worked closely for years with the Metatemas collection in Tusquets Editores and has collaborated as a scientific consultant at CosmoCaixa. He has written the books La conjura de los machos (A Confederacy of Males) and El sexo de las lagartijas (The Sex of Lizards), both published by Tusquets Editores.