This argument [that life is too improbable to have arisen by chance] comes up repeatedly: its latest manifestation is Hoyle's discussion of the likelihood of a wind blowing through a junkyard assembling a Boeing 707 [sic]. What is wrong with it? Essentially, it is that no biologist imagines that complex structures arise in a single step.
John Maynard SmithIt is in the nature of science that once a position becomes orthodox it should be suggested to criticism.... It does not follow that, because a position is orthodox, it is wrong.
John Maynard SmithParadoxically, it has turned out that game theory is more readily applied to biology than to the field of economic behavior for which it was originally designed
John Maynard SmithSo far, we have been able to study only one evolving system and we cannot wait for interstellar flight to provide us with a second. If we want to discover generalizations about evolving systems, we will have to look at artificial ones.
John Maynard SmithMathematics without natural history is sterile, but natural history without mathematics is muddled.
John Maynard SmithAs an evolutionary biologist, I have learned over the years that most people do not want to see themselves as lumbering robots programmed to ensure the survival of their genes. I don't think they will want to see themselves as digital computers either. To be told by someone with impeccable scientific credentials that they are nothing of the kind can only be pleasing.
John Maynard SmithMathematics is so much easier than words mathematics makes things clear that words merely muddle and confuse and mess up.
John Maynard SmithDarwin's theory of evolution by natural selection is the only workable explanation that has ever been proposed for the remarkable fact of our own existence, indeed the existence of all life wherever it may turn up in the universe.
John Maynard SmithScientific theories tell us what is possible; myths tell us what is desirable. Both are needed to guide proper action.
John Maynard SmithIt is an occupational risk of biologists to claim, towards the end of their careers, that the problems which they have not solved are insoluble.
John Maynard Smith