In the context of TFA, are you sure it's not GP who's arguing for sport? Maybe this clarifies the issue: one way to reword the root (critical) comment is "of course there is a cost, since entropy is always exacting a price". There's constant upkeep necessary for any trait if it is to be preserved. It points out a glaring blind-spot in the article.
It’s funny how often this sort of thing comes up. I’ve always felt that “biology” as a field was unique in the way that it is often taught. Bio 101, etc. - most of undergraduate biology - is often taught with this sort of sweeping worship of the process of evolution in a way that leads to it transcending rational thought. Natural selection is very real, and it’s also
such a sorry excuse for an evolutionary algorithm :D
It’s been a long time since my first bio classes so I can’t remember the way I was first taught it, but I do remember all more advanced bio literally being told to unlearn what we had already been taught.
