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I wondered what internalised meant until I realized he meant internalized. It's funny how evos seem to think that creatures change through some kind of will of their own. I really think that you have to read this into their thought processes.

I wondered what internalised meant until I realized he meant internalized.

You don't speak English, eh? ;-)

It's funny how evos seem to think that creatures change through some kind of will of their own. I really think that you have to read this into their thought processes.

I have to constantly remind myself and others of this when talking to laymen, who might take the shorthand literally. When I say that a "stream looks for the most direct channel," I don't mean it has eyes. Likewise, evolution isn't consciously directed, but it can seem that way in hindsight because of the winnowing process.

In other words, you're right about having to understand the shorthand that's used.

I wondered what internalised meant until I realized he meant internalized.

Post 101? I can't find the word "internalised". Did you intend to comment on the "I Dream of Jeannie" hypothesis of human development?

It's funny how evos seem to think that creatures change through some kind of will of their own. I really think that you have to read this into their thought processes.

I can't speak for what all people think, but evolutionary biologists know that isn't true. However, there is no shortage of confused lay thinking about evolutionary theory, and even the language of biologists is misleading in its causality (as you say). The closest to the truth your description reads is that creatures' behavior affects their survival, but that is not a useful trait in describing which creatures survive to reproduce, since the trait is essentially ubiquitous.