Frozen Evolution. Or, that’s not the way it is, Mr. Darwin. A Farewell to Selfish Gene.

Evolution is generally understood to mean gradual development of any system with a “memory”, i.e. any system that responds to external stimuli in dependence on the stimuli that it encountered in the past. This means that it is equally possible to speak of the evolution of languages, automobile chasses or ladies’ hairstyles as about the evolution of conifers. Evolution can be direct, reverse or cyclic. Biological evolution is one of the many types of evolution. It is interesting primarily in that organisms are formed spontaneously during this process, i.e. systems that are usefully adapted to the use of various resources in the environment, including such marvellous creatures as fruit flies, coconut palms, sturgeons and the readers of this book.