[tallhappy]

Actually what you described was close enough to neutral drift.

Evolution = variation + selection is so broad as to apply to every reproduction or replication. It doesn't inform at all about evolution just redefines the word evolution to be equivalent to life.

[VadeRetro]

Evolution = variation + selection is so broad as to apply to every reproduction or replication.

It does.

It doesn't inform at all about evolution just redefines the word evolution to be equivalent to life.

Life evolves, but that doesn't make evolution life. Stay stupid.

[tortoise]

Evolution = variation + selection is so broad as to apply to every reproduction or replication. It doesn't inform at all about evolution just redefines the word evolution to be equivalent to life.

Evolution is an elementary dynamic in general systems theory in mathematics -- it is expressed in biology, but it is not a biological concept. It has nothing to do with life, but recognizing that it must exist in biological systems is a "duh, obvious" moment since it is basically a mandatory dynamic as a matter of mathematics. It does not have anything to do with speciation per se, but it is hard to ignore the potential impact on speciation given that this dynamic is in fact necessarily occurring.