ABSTRACT
Evolution proceeds by the interaction of organisms with their physical and biological environment. This, however, is not the objective entity that we define topologically and by various kinds of measurable factors. Just as different people see the same surroundings with different eyes, each organism has its specific environment (Pl. 1.1). It contains only a fraction of all factors and these have different priorities from case to case. The specific environment remains largely a virtual entity (a gardener approaches it when learning what place is the best for a certain plant). What we can empirically define, are different life styles. They can be modelled as peaks in an ecologic landscape that evolution approaches convergently from different sides. Each species takes a different path, according to its historical, functional, and fabricational constraints and possibilities. Convergence never results in identity (remember the results of gene sequencing!) and often stops at a group-specific “paradigm”. Nevertheless it helps us to recognize adaptive peaks as if they were goals for the future-blind climbers.
