>>2321533Mutation isn't
>lmao suddenly spider tail XD birdfags btfoit's
>snek A has a slightly lighter tail: birds are distracted for a fraction of a second longer, so its hunts succeed a bit more often>snek B has a slightly lighter head: birds see the snake head easier and are more wary, so its hunts succeed a bit less often>snek C twitches its tail while hunting: birds investigate the tiny moving thing as potential prey, so its hunts succeed a bit more often>snek D wiggles its body while hunting: birds see the snake and stay away, so it rarely succeeds and soon starvesSnakes A and C are better-fed, even if just by a little, so they are, on average, more likely to win a rival fight, seduce a ladysnek, or survive a long lack of prey. They will go on to produce light-tailed and twitchy-tailed baby snakes, who also do slightly better than the "normal" snakes and are slightly more likely to reproduce.
Over thousands of generations, it so happens that "light tail," "sticking-out tail scales," and "steady tail movements"-like mutations are more likely to reproduce than "camo tail," "thin tail," and "motionless tail"-like mutations.
Magical thinking vs evolution is like the difference between a sidewalk (a conscious effort to design a route) and a desire path (the emergent, self-reinforcing result of many iterations of people going "huh, that looks like a better route").
