Programming computers to learn from experience should eventually eliminate the need for much of this detailed programming effort. It takes the organism away from harmful events and toward favourable ones, or introduces changes in the immediate environment that make survival more likely. Those who could so rank may be eaten those who could not. It allows us to bet before we act and improve the outcome of acting.
Natural selection filters out organisms as they cross the fuzzy line from the present to the future.
Natural selection favors brain mechanisms that help an organism make its next move in a changing and dangerous world. In that context, adaptation designates any process where a structure is progressively modified to give better performance in its environment. The structures may range from a protein molecule to a horse's foot, a human brain, or even to an interacting group of organisms such as the wildlife of the African veldt. Typical structures and operators of Adaptation Field Structures Operators Genetics chromosomes mutation, recombination, etc Economic Planning mixes of goods production activities Control policies Bayes' rule, successive approximation, etc. Adaptive Plan A system undergoing adaptation is largely characterised by the mixture of operators acting on the structures at each stage.