Survival of the adaptable

Charles Darwin and the flight training manager

Mention Charles Darwin and the immediate association usually is with the term ‘survival of the fittest’ — actually coined by British philosopher Herbert Spencer and later used by Darwin.

But evolution is not about survival of the fittest, a meaningless term unless a frozen ‘fitness landscape’ is specifically defined. Rather it is about ‘survival of the most adaptable’ to unknown and unpredictable future fitness landscapes or new environmental conditions, provided species are fit enough to prosper in existing conditions.