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Overview
Darwinian demon
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A hypothetical organism that is able to maximize all elements of its fitness simultaneously. It reproduces immediately after birth, produces the maximum number of young, and lives indefinitely. No such organism could exist, but biologists use the concept in thought experiments concerning life history strategies and evolutionary trade-offs. The term also describes a hypothetical being capable of deciding which mutations appear, but with no influence over the natural selection subsequently acting on them.
From: Darwinian demon in A Dictionary of Ecology »
