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The metaphor of Mount Improbable represents the combination of perfection and improbability, which is epitomized in the seemingly "designed" perfection of living things. In this book, Dawkins skillfully guides the reader on a breathtaking journey through the mountain's passes and up its many peaks to demonstrate that following the improbable path to perfection takes time. of photos. 120 illustrations.
The point made early and oft repeated here is that creationists have got it all wrong: Mutations happen by chance (and are usually bad or at most neutral). But natural selection is not random: If the mutation confers an advantage, its possessor has the potential of leaving more offspring, allowing the mutation to spread. The book's title refers to Dawkins's metaphor for evolution: The process is, he suggests, somewhat like the act of climbing a mountain. One doesn't proceed by launching an immediate assault in a straight line from the base to the peak, but by necessarily working through a series of smaller hills first, attaining the summit gradually, in a seemingly roundabout way. Dawkins uses the evolution of eyes, of spider webs, and of wings, among other features, to press his argument, providing wonderfully rich examples from extinct and contemporary species. There are, however, some assumptions that may be questioned by other equally ardent Darwinists: For example, is evolution necessarily "good"? Dawkins seems to think so, and, of course, from a selfish point of view it is, since it produced us. But, as Stephen Jay Gould has recently pointed out, the most successful creatures on earth are bacteria and insects, species that have been around for eons and probably will outlast the rest of us complex critters. A second debatable assumption is that evolution necessarily proceeds toward complexity, when much evidence seems to suggest otherwise.
Wonderful metaphorical trees examined in minute detail (including a tour de force on actual fig trees and their pollinating wasps), but Dawkins's evolutionary forest may be just a bit overpopulated with complex and improvable species.
Richard Dawkins is the Charles Simonyi Professor for the Understanding of Science at Oxford University, and is the author of The Selfish Gene, The Extended Phenotype, River Out of Eden, Climbing Mount Improbable, Unweaving the Rainbow, The Devil’s Chaplain, and The Ancestor’s Tale.
Anonymous
Posted February 16, 2000
Dawkins doesn't use computer graphics to *prove* evolution. He doesn't throw out mumbo-jumbo big scientific words to seem grand. Dawkins doesn't go off-tangent and swirl around 'how I decided to be a scientist when I was 10....' childhood stories. He's matter-of-factly, level-headed, and leads you step-by-step through the process of evolution, he dispels myths that critics have put forward against punctuated equilibrium. He explains mimicry in nature, why the evolution of a long neck in giraffes is different from that of an evolution of an entire eye, and the theory of the selfish gene. A definite thumbs up.
12 out of 12 people found this review helpful.
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Posted February 8, 2000
Dawkins is a master of imaginative storytelling. He also resorts to computer simulation to ostensibly show how living structures could arise from less complex parts. However, his computer-made structures bear only a superficial resemblance, at best, to actual living things, and are orders of magnitude less complex than even the simplest of living things. Conclusion: Molecules-to-man evolution remains, at best, unproven.
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