Question

What is meant by a mechanism of evolution?

Answer 1

The mechanisms of evolution allow evolutionism to be explained according to the scientific method. Through the mechanisms of evolution we can understand how the equilibrium in a population is changed and the consequences that this change causes.

The most important mechanisms of evolution include:

• Trial and error: It is the simplest of all methods of evolutionism; in principle it is typical of microorganisms with a lot of progeny in each generation and relies on the later mechanism of natural selection.

• Natural Selection: In the strict and exclusive sense, it would act as the only method of effective evolution, since random modifications alone would not achieve the observed evolution of living beings. Assuming the randomness of modifications, the earlier trial and error method would be more general than natural selection, since it does not always operate.  Natural selection is characterized as a method of verification exogenous to the evolutionary system itself or the system of creation of genetic modifications, as it acts “a posteriori”.

• Exhaustive proof or simulation: Of the results predicted by the genetic modifications made. In certain cases, living organisms may prove the effect of replacing, for example, one protein with another, if the evidence is satisfactory with respect to the functionality of the new mechanism of evolution; and there is no risk of having side effects on suppression of the first protein, genetic modification could be carried out without major problems as the guarantee objective would be fully covered.
• Partial Proof of Modifications: When an evolutionary system is complicated and contains many interrelationships, exhaustive proof of the effects of a small modification will not be possible and will have to be limited to more or less extensive but not total proof. To the extent that the range of possible effects of genetic modification has been covered, it will carry greater or lesser risk. The risks of this method are very well known to computer programmers.