So, advantageous genetic codes tend to proliferate, while disavantageous genetic codes tend to disappear.
We see that happening today, right here in the northeastern United States.
For all eternity, the most important survival traits for deer were speed and agility: the ability to elude predators. But then the Americans took over the continent and killed off all the deer's predators. Predation is no longer a major threat to a deer's survival. Instead, the major threat is auto traffic. No matter how fast a deer can run, he can't outrun a car. And agility--the ability to change direction quickly--is not just not an advantage, but it's actually a disadvantage. Drivers would much prefer not to hit a deer (take my word for it, a year ago one did $7,000 damage to my truck), but if the deer runs in a zigzag pattern, he's hard to steer around.
So the deer with their time-tested survival traits are now
less likely to survive and pass on their DNA to the next generation. A few deer are occasionally born with above-average intelligence. They have the ability to survey their surroundings and make reasoned decisions about it. They see the cars moving in a straight line and never going over the edge of the highway. They see drivers slowing down to avoid hitting people, dogs, cats and raccoons. They see large groups of humans--even tiny children--walking blithely across busy streets in a pattern that seems to be synchronized with the little red and green lights above the intersections. They understand that new methods are required for survival and they develop them. Those genes are passed down to the next generation.
In each generation of deer, the average speed and agility are a little less than they were before, but the average intelligence is higher. Today we see deer calmly grazing on the strip of grass next to the highway, with their antlers not quite sticking out into the traffic, confident that the cars will stay on the pavement.
More astoundingly, many people (including myself) report seeing deer standing on the curb at a crosswalk, waiting for the pedestrian signal to turn green, and then calmly walking across the street with the humans.
They have even figured out that most dogs, at some time in their ancestry, were trained to guard livestock rather than killing it. Back home in California, the deer jump over the fence
into our yard at night, knowing that our dogs will do their best to protect them from the bears and cougars.
With each generation, the stupid, fast-running deer die off and the slower, smarter ones live to reproduce. The average strength and speed of the species is declining, but the average IQ is rising.