As creatures with brains evolved, those with the more effective algorithms would have a better tendency to survive and therefore, on the whole, had more progeny. These progeny also tended to carry more effective algorithms than their cousins, since they inherited the ingredients of these better algorithms from their parents; so gradually the algorithms improved – not necessarily steadily, since there could have been considerable fits and starts in their evolution – until they reached the remarkable status that we (would apparently) find in the human brain. (Compare Dawkins 1986.)
