Evolution is the cumulative changes in the heritable characteristics of a population of organisms over many generations. This change is driven by the process of natural selection, through which the organisms with characteristics that give them advantages in an ecosystem survive and reproduce, passing on those beneficial characteristics to the next generation. On the time scale of millennia, the workings of natural selection across the natural variation within a population within the context of a given environment can result in profound evolutionary changes.
Evolution is foundationally important to understanding the origins of the incredibly rich biodiversity of life on Earth, as illustrated by the evolution of human beings from early primates and the evolution of birds from dinosaurs. Charles Darwin, widely known for his role in developing and popularizing the theory of evolution in the 19th century, conceptualized this process as creating a “tree of life” over time, with trunk, branches and leaves symbolizing how individual species and larger groups of organisms all evolved from common ancestors.
The insights of Darwin and other evolutionary theorists have shaped our understanding of biology and genetics, but this powerful paradigm is used in other contexts to illustrate processes of gradual, iterative change. For example, political philosophy has looked to evolution as a model for explaining how forms of social organization and governance have responded to competitive and social pressures. Researchers in artificial intelligence (AI) also rely on evolutionary models in their work designing autonomous agents and developing decision-making algorithms.
