[refurb]

I probably didn't do a good job explaining it, but using your obstacle analogy...

When you say "an object in my path caused me to go around it", you're switching the cause and effect.

A more accurate way to say it would be "an obstacle on the path meant that only a handful of the population can go around it".

The change that allows you to go around the obstacle was not caused by the obstacle, it would have happened regardless. However, the change is only important if the obstacle is there - that's what drives evolution (selection).

[kbenson]

> However, the change is only important if the obstacle is there - that's what drives evolution (selection).

I understand what's being said, it's the "selects" that triggers the problem for me.

I think of evolution as a system. Inputs cause the system to act in a certain way, but it's the system responding to the inputs, not the inputs choosing to get a specific output (which is what it sounds like to me to say A selects for B).

In the same way with orbital mechanics I wouldn't say a one object selected for a change in trajectory in the other. I would say one caused the change in the other, or more specifically, due to the how orbital mechanics work (the "system", the law of gravity), one object caused a change in the trajectory of the other.

So I guess my question is, why does evolution prefer the "selects" terminology? Is that common in any other sciences?

[Reelin]

> why does evolution prefer the "selects" terminology? Is that common in any other sciences?

I think this is due to set theory and statistics. Terminology such as "select x such that" is standard. In fact a choice function is commonly referred to as a selector. Since evolution is essentially a biased random walk, you can describe it as a stochastic choice function (plus some other stuff) applied to the set of entities that makes up a population.

(If "selects" bothers you, what do you make of quantum mechanical "observers"? I witnessed that one cause lots of misconceptions among university and even a few graduate students.)