I was stopped recently by a store clerk inquiring about the meaning of the Darwin Fish on my lapel. It means, I said, that I accept the theory of evolution. "You believe in that?" he said. Well, actually yes. I also believe in the law of gravity, the circulation of the blood, and that two plus two, in a system of base five or higher, add up to four. I might chose to "disbelieve" in them but they will go on being true regardless. (Facts are stubborn that way.) He went on to ask me whether I believed things were still evolving. Yes, I said. At this his incredulity reached its height: "People too?" Well I had to admit to him, you, individually, are as evolved as you will ever be. (To be fair, so am I. Though I confess I do feel I'd reached a somewhat higher point on the food chain than this acne-ridden teenager.) He then went on asking rapid-fire about what I thought people would evolve into.

At this point I really did want to get on with my shopping. But I liked that: "People too?" There are a surprising lot of people who can accept evolution of all other creatures but figure that homo sapiens sapiens (a misnomer if ever there was one!) is the endpoint of the process, upon which no improvement is possible or desirable.