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Environment. You seem to be missing the "natural selection" part of evolution. The optimization process works like this: - Life reproduces; between imperfections in reproduction and environmental mutagenic factors, there is a certain amount of random mutations; - The churn happens. Organisms compete for resources; winners reproduce, losers starve. Environment throws curveballs - spills, seasons, volcanos, radiation, oxygen, and a million different things. A lot of organisms are killed, some survive and reproduce. Now, mutations can make organisms better or worse at surviving the challenges. This is the asymmetry you're looking for, the driver of evolution. Helpful mutations propagate, unhelpful mutations die. Where "helpful" means, of course, "helpful locally, at a given moment". Rinse and repeat. The randomness isn't the driver - it's just jitter preventing evolution from getting stuck in a local minimum. The life cycle of birth and death is what drives evolution, specifically because it depends on both how the organism is built, and on the environment. |