fragility paradox,
originally in biology where a newly evolved complexity tends to appear fragile (if only by having piled on top of the still-present old adaptations) but is actually not, at least not in the current environment: after all, it has outevolved its simpler ancestors. For a classic example, shifting the balance from nature (genome) to nurture (culture) surged human survivability — made the species not only less vulnerable to catastrophic extinctions or (a true motherlode of scares) “cultural resets” but, in the long term, enabled humans to confront intra- and extrabiological threats affecting entire biosystems.
page revision: 0, last edited: 18 Oct 2014 00:47