PoV (Lecture 29): What Is Natural Selection?

You Think You Understand Natural Selection. You Probably Don’t. If you had to explain natural selection to a friend right now, chances are you’d reach for a phrase you didn’t invent, Darwin didn’t coin, and science wishes would quietly disappear: “survival of the fittest".

It sounds punchy. It sounds obvious. It is also deeply misleading.

The phrase comes from Herbert Spencer, not Darwin, and over the years it has done an impressive amount of damage. It turns a subtle process into a slogan, smuggles moral judgment into biology, and lends itself far too easily to bad political arguments dressed up as “nature.” Once you start looking closely, almost everything about it falls apart.

This is the starting point of What Is Natural Selection (and Why It Is Not “Survival of the Fittest”)?, the next Pint of View lecture by Dr. Amitabh Joshi.

Rather than treating natural selection as a concept locked inside biology textbooks, Dr. Joshi asks a deceptively simple question: what is it, really? Not the cartoon version. Not the ladder diagram you’ve seen a hundred times. The actual process.

One reason natural selection is so often misunderstood is the way we are taught to visualise evolution. Small to large. Simple to complex. Worse to better. This linear “ladder” view is everywhere, and it is wrong. Evolution does not march forward. It branches.

Dog breeds make this instantly visible. Chihuahuas, Great Danes, Pugs, Huskies. Same species. Radically different forms. None of them is “more evolved” than the others. They are the result of selection acting in different directions, not progress along a single path.

All of this unfolds over beer by Geist or a mocktail aong with an appetiser at Fandom at Gilly's Redefined.

What to expect:

• A lively, accessible science lecture designed for curious non-specialists
• 1 complimentary drink to sip through the lecture
• Plenty of room for questions, discussion, and close interaction with the speaker
• A fresh perspective on natural selection

This isn’t an academic lecture hall experience. Think thoughtful storytelling, real research, and a warm, informal atmosphere where ideas flow as easily as the drinks.

Event Details:

📅 Wednesday, 14 January | 7 pm to 9 pm

📍 Fandom at Gilly's Redefined, Koramangala

About the Lecturer

Dr. Amitabh Joshi has been on the faculty of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre For Advanced Scientific Research, Bengaluru since 1996. He is a Fellow of India’s leading science academies, a recipient of the SS Bhatnagar Prize for Biological Sciences, and someone who thinks seriously about the history and philosophy of evolutionary thought. He also writes poetry in Urdu, English, and occasionally Persian, which may explain why this talk is as much about clarity of thinking as it is about biology.

Book now & develop your own pint of view! 🍻