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ANNOTATION:
The force of the Red Queen Principle
It is suggested that if a species was to overcome all the obstacles in its way then "the Red Queen Principlewould ensure that new obstacles arose. Surely this is to construe the Red Queen Principle as the expression of some natural force, which necessarily applies, rather than as a contingently true description of how the world just happens to be. Such a construal may be mistaken. It is not true that "The Red Queen Principlehas some force, some guiding power, or that there is some other powerful agent that applies the Principle. The Red Queen principle is not a law of nature, it is merely a truism. If some species is ever fortunate enough to overcome all its obstacles, then there is no reason why new obstacles should arise. Indeed many species have managed to survive, largely unaltered, for millenia, just because they have evolved to the point where they are fully able to cope with their environment. It is only when the environment changes, which it need not necessarily do, that they will once
again have to start running just in order to stand still.
Copyright© 1994 Principia Cybernetica -
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