Biological evolution and emergence

The theory of evolution explains the origin of biological diversity and levels of similarity between species. A characteristic of emergence is that many iterations of a simple law (natural selection of the fittest to reproduce) can produce novel, diverse and rich structures. In biological evolution many generations in a population can produce new traits and species. Many of the most debated issues about evolution relate to the different characteristics of emergence and are briefly discussed below.ScalesCentral to emergence are the ideas of “many” and of scales. The former can take two forms: a system composed of many interacting components, or a system that undergoes many iterations according to a rule that is repeated many times. For evolution, both forms of “many” are relevant and have several dimensions. Evolution occurs in a population, i.e., a community of many members of a species living in a specific environment. Each member of the population has a specific genotype (many…