“The race is not to the swift,” we learn from Ecclesiastes, “nor the battle to the strong.” But as Damon Runyan once wrote, that’s the way to bet. I grant that much of the time, Runyon’s cynicism is consistent with the nonhuman world, no less than the human one. When a cheetah chases a gazelle, the race is typically won by whichever is swiftest. When two bull elk battle over which one gets to control and mate with a harem of cow elk, I’d bet on the stronger. (More precisely, winning genes are those that manage to promote identical copies of themselves in succeeding generations.)

Source: New York Times December 15, 2018 19:30 UTC