Chance or Choice?

Abstract

‘Chance or choice?’ reviews the nature of natural selection, and how selection principles also apply to the evolution of ideas, technologies, and products. The multifactorial nature of natural selection is contrasted with the generally narrow framing of artificial selection, which externalises many impacts on ecosystems thereby compromising their capacities to sustain human needs through the process of natural selection. A more directed revolution is required in human development, rather than reliance on fortuitous innovations, guided by a broader framework of principles more closely aligned to the complexity of the natural world. Conceptions of sustainable development implicitly assuming stationarity are challenged, as the pace of ecosystem declines and burgeoning of human numbers demands a concerted approach to rebuilding degraded ecosystem capacity and resilience.