New Theory -- the Black Queen Hypothesis
In modern science, evolution is one of the basic templates to help understand the biology and ecology of an organism. The theory was put forth in the late 19th century by Charles Darwin and others. It describes the change in inherited traits of a population through a process called natural selection. This process allows only the strongest, most robust and useful traits to perpetuate because they are the most adapted to the organism's environment. Evolution, then, is the product of two opposing forces: variation in traits and mutation. Thus, most of evolutionary theory surrounds the notion that living organisms evolve by adding genes (adaptations to the environment) rather than discarding them (Futuyma, 2005).
Evolution was a dramatic, and controversial, theory. It convinces most of the scientific community that the world was continually evolving, not static, and most certainly not just a few thousand years old as indicated in the Christian Bible. This was a huge paradigm shift -- it turned religion and philosophy around to the point that even in the 20th and 21st centuries the...
Some see this explanation of life as the central organizing force that allows for complexity. Darwin's natural selection is such a process that accounts for evolution to the point of both human minds and societies. Philosopher and cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett, in his 1995 book Darwin's Dangerous Idea, says that:
Charles Darwin's fundamental idea has inspired intense reactions ranging from ferocious condemnation to ecstatic allegiance, sometimes tantamount to religious zeal. Darwin's theory has been abused and misrepresented by friend and foe alike. It has been misappropriated to lend scientific respectability to appalling political and social doctrines. It has been pilloried in caricature by opponents, some of whom would have it compete in our children's schools with 'creation science,' a pathetic hodgepodge of pious pseudo-science. Almost no one is indifferent to Darwin, and no one should be (Dennett, 2005, 17-18).
Given that evolution is a relatively new scientific theory, we now see that a brand-new hypothesis,…
