An everyday example of it is the existence of sexual reproduction. In the short-to-medium term, as he points out, needing to find a suitable member of the opposite sex with whom to reproduce greatly reduces the chances of reproductive success, and at the same time halves the number of potential reproductive units. Once established, it works – but at the outset there would be grave competitive disadvantages without their being offset by the advantages that come only further down the line. How this happened remains, as he puts it, ‘utterly unclear.’
