r norman  wrote or quoted:

> Natural selection works in a direction to make populations more fit; 
> better able to produce functional offspring in a particular 
> environment.  It is nothing whatsoever to do with getting "better" or 
>  becoming more "perfect".  In fact, the terms
"evolutionarily advanced" 
> and "evolutionarily primitive".  You can be
"evolutionarily derived" 
> from some ancestral form meaning only that you have changed.  You don't 
> specify that the change was an "advancement" or resulted in
"progress".

Why not?

I am quite happy to describe important technological discoveries as 
"advancement" or "progress".

Painting developments such as the development of photosynthesis,
sexual recombination, vision, consciousness, genetic engineering
as *not* progressive in character seems simply obtuse.

These technologies are likely to remain useful for living organisms
indefinitely - and living systems are a lot better off now they
have discovered them.
-- 
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