# Natural Selection Is Powerful Yet Evolution Can Be Slow by Richard Dawkins > “The three meanings are too disparate to bring together easily, but I'll try. The popular question 'Has there been enough time for evolution to take place?' can now confidently be answered in the affirmative. It should never have been put in the first place since, self-evidently, we are here. But what is more interesting is that the real question that faces us is almost the exact opposite. Why is evolution so slow, given that natural selection is so powerful? Far from there being too little time for evolution to play with, there seems to be too much.” > **— Richard Dawkins**, *2001, Edge Annual Question, “What Questions Have Disappeared?”* ## Sources and Context - **Direct Edge response and surrounding essay:** [As William Blake might have written to a coelacanth: Did he who made the haplochromids make thee?](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/12018) — Edge published this exact passage in its 2001 Annual Question collection, *WHAT QUESTIONS HAVE DISAPPEARED?*. The response page preserves the surrounding argument and qualifications. - **Complete local collection index:** [[research/Edge 2001 Full Quotation Curation - Disappeared Questions|Edge 2001 Full Quotation Curation - Disappeared Questions]] — retained source-first record for the complete response cohort and this passage's promotion status. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Evolutionary Roots of Silicon Valley|Valley Roots]] - **Article:** [[articles/Digital Darwinism and the Invisible World of Machine Evolution|Digital Darwinism]] - **Article:** [[articles/We Were Never Going to Make It|Never Going to Make It!]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Evolutionary Biology|Evolutionary Biology]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Evolutionary Biology|Evolutionary Biology]] - [[wiki/Richard Dawkins|Richard Dawkins]] - [[wiki/Evolvability|Evolvability]] - [[wiki/Natural Selection|Natural Selection]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “The three meanings are too disparate to bring together easily, but I'll try. The popular question 'Has there been enough time for evolution to take place?' can now confidently be answered in the affirmative. It should never have been put in the first place since, self-evidently, we are here. But what is more interesting is that the real question that faces us is almost the exact opposite. Why is evolution so slow, given that natural selection is so powerful? Far from there being too little time for evolution to play with, there seems to be too much.” — Richard Dawkins, 2001, Edge Annual Question, “What Questions Have Disappeared?” https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-richard-dawkins-natural-selection-powerful-yet-evolution ```