evolution ..

in high school when we were taught things about evolution/natural selection -- i somehow got the impression that species were explicitly trying to adapt to their environment, i.e., each animal somehow consciously tries to grow a longer tail or sharper claws or change its color to survive better.

now that i understand it slightly better this mistaken notion has since been dispelled -- its not the case that each species/animals consciously try to adapt -- the truth couldnt be farther away from this. the truth is that random shit happens, and the random shit that turns out to be best adapted to the current environment has greater probability of survival and there is an observational bias -- we only see those species that have the beaks/claws/colors best suited to the environment (the rest have been exterminated!), giving us the impression of some conscious effort by species to adapt to their surroundings.