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Updated: Jun 5, 2026

A Practical Guide to Phage- and Robotics-Assisted Near-Continuous Evolution
Published on: January 12, 2024
Evolution and progress
1Michael Ruse is at the Depts of Philosophy and Zoology, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1.
Abstract:
The concept of progress is one which makes evolutionists feel very uneasy, yet it is also a concept to which they are forever returning. It is useful to make a distinction between 'comparative progress' which involves competition between groups, and 'absolute progress' which involves the climb up some objective scale. Both kinds of progress have been the subject of much debate in recent years, leading one to turn from expectations that the controversy will ever be resolved to queries about why it continues to obsess so many people.
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