I havent read it, but thought he concluded there was an intention - to successfully replicate?
But that's the whole point, nothing successfully 'replicates'. There are many mutations, however slight, that result from replicatory processes and, importantly, natural selective factors interact with these 'near copies' to winnow them out and allow the survival of the mutation that best 'fits' the new situation.
So mortality can result quickly to some mutations, say within a few generations, but very slowly to others, taking many generations before the full effects of the selective factor are manifested.
A fast acting selective pressure eg we can use is the effect of Warfarin on rat liver. Warfarin acts to destroy rat liver and when it was first used to poison them, most rats were not able to grow enough replacement liver fast enough to counteract the rate of destruction and they died. However, a few rats were extremely good at replacing lost liver and they survived the onslaught.
They can grow a complete new liver within 2-3 weeks and are able to use warfarin laced grain as just another food source within a few generations, the fast-liver gene becoming more prevalent in the popn in a relatively short time.
An eg of a longer acting sel. pres. is the change in the human diet from a catch-it-as-you-can hunter-gatherer diet to one that became predominantly grain based about 10000 years ago, I think. We still have a sizeable portion of the popn that has problems with gluten digestion (and also with lactose in milk). So although the pressure is not generally lethal, it's probably enough to affect the breeding success of families without the gene that codes for the necessary digestive enzymes and perhaps takes 100s of generations rather than the 10s of generations it took rats to adapt.
I'm not going to give links because you're an intelligent person and you can quickly google them for yourself and, besides, you've probably got alot more life left to you than I have, so waste some of your own.
But if you have any probs getting them, just ask.
But it's more complicated than that, because you have many selective pressures acting at once, an infinite number, acting together in many combinations.
You've certainly opened pandora's box with this one. Good hunting!
Life is never simple and real life is infinitely more complicated than the one described in that simplistic, mouldy book.
Topic: Do you believe in Nothing?