io9 came upon a fascinating video that succinctly illustrates how something simple can become quite complicated over time. Clement Valla asked 500 people to consecutively trace what was, at first, a single line. As each person traces the last person's line, the result becomes more and more jumbled and complex.As pointed out by io9, this video is an illuminating metaphor for the process of biological evolution:
As each person was asked to copy the previous person's effort, the original straight line morphed into a chaotic mess of random squiggles. We're not saying this is exactly like how evolution works, but this is a pretty great depiction of how random errors and mutations can accumulate over time.Take a look.
A Sequence of Lines Traced by Five Hundred Individuals from clement valla on Vimeo.