Iain Benson, Letter to New Scientist

In the interview with Tom Willis, he claims that 747s and coffee cups
are examples of the fact that complex systems must be created.

This is not true. Take the 747. The Wright brothers built their biplane
over a hundred years ago. This plane was not fit for the purpose of
transporting people and cargo around the world, or for fighting.
Therefore, in the Great War planes adapted to suit a role of
dog-fighting. Their structures became more complex. In the years between
the two World Wars, planes had a new niche: that of transporting
passengers, and again, they became more complicated, and their structure
changed. By the time of the Second World War, planes had developed into
something else again, being more complex still. There was a radical
change on the development of the jet engine, that produced a new breed
of aircraft.

Aeroplanes became vastly more complicated because they had to adapt to
the new engine. Safety measures have imposed an environmental fitness
factor on aircraft now, refining them even more, until the Boeing 747
emerged (and jet-fighters, pleasure craft, executive jets, etc). This is
an example of evolution, speciation and fitness for their niches.

The Wright brothers could have no more built a 747 than the Egyptians
could (although they did produce working toy gliders). Nor could a 747
have been created in the sixties if not for the successive generations
of aircraft before it.

What we see in the 747 is a gradual change from the early days of
flight, to the more modern, complex, craft of today. There has been a
great deal of speciation of aeroplanes from the original early model,
filling in niches from Tornadoes and Stealth Bombers, to luxury personal
jets, to gliders and pleasure craft.

Rather than refute the evolution argument, a 747 actually supports it.
Complex systems evolve from more simple ones.

Coffee cups are just one species of fluid container to evolve from the
more simple beakers of pre-history, again filling in niches from
tea-cups and espresso cups to whisky glasses and vodka flutes.

 While each individual item may have been built from scratch, the modern
versions of most complex items we see about us have evolved from more
simple structures until they fill the niches required. Even Tom Willis's
pocket comb looks remarkably different from the one used by early
humans. We now have many kinds of combs and brushes suited to all kinds
of niches. The one in his pocket is suited for that exact purpose, being
constructed from durable plastic with close teeth.

If Tom Willis desires to refute evolution, he would do better to choose
something that has never evolved."

 Iain Benson UK

"New Scientist", 22 April 2000, no. 2235.
http://www.newscientist.com