Using Computer Modeling to Explain the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection

Throughout The Blind Watchmaker Richard Dawkins attempts to use computer modeling to explain and defend various aspects of the theory of evolution by natural selection. Where Dawkins’ computer modeling comes into use in a significant way is discussed in Chapter 3 of his book titled, “Accumulating Small Change”. In it, Dawkins takes the reader through explanations of what cumulative selection is and how it builds up biological complexity in a meaningful, and relatively quick, way. He does this with computer modeling and continues on with various other examples of computer models to explain how genes work, what mutation looks like, and how it gets selected. The following is a look at how he uses computer modeling to these ends and what their limits are, essentially, what sort of questions they can answer. Dawkins begins Chapter 3 of The Blind Watchmaker by posing the question of how living things came into existence if not by chance. He explains that it was by a series of “gradual, step-by-step transformations” from entities simple enough to have come about existing by chance transitioning into entities which are incredibly complex and which could not have come to exist by chance alone (Dawkins 43). This transitional process is achieved through “nonrandom survival” and is known as cumulative selection (Dawkins 43). From here we are told about the difference between single-step selection and cumulative selection, that single step selection is a natural response to a random occurrence, which is why larger pebbles on the beach end up in one place by their carrying wave of water and smaller pebbles end up in another place on the beach (Dawkins 43). Single-step selection is essentially what a sieve is, something which acts as a filter so that smaller or lighter items fall into