Remember, dolphins did not evolve from inorganic dirt directly - there were fish around, and some specie of fish from which dolphins evolved. Most likely this specie had good hearing abilities (many fish communicate by ultrasound) and some of them may have noticed that if their "clicks" quickly echoes back, soon after continuing to move in echo direction they find an obstacle or some other object (food, predator, etc.). This is a great advantage for survival - to associate an echo with some object. And it does not take much "brain" to recognize that fast and strong echo always corresponds to closer and bigger object versus delayed and weak echo which corresponds to far and small one. So, evolution is not a creating an extraordinary feature overnight - it is gradual process of slight mutations generation after generation, and selection of "fittiest".

So, you do not have to experiment with a blank canvas in hope to get Joconda's smile. You have almost completed portrait - may be just without a smile, and you just slightly modify it randomly by throwing tiny paint drops of various shapes and colors - there are some chances that one will land at the corner of Joconda's lip and makes unusual smile (which will bring headache to art experts trying to understand its "sense").

• Pollock's paintings evolved - yanniru - July 9, 2001 - 23:22 UTC
• Clarification - harvey1 - July 10, 2001 - 19:22 UTC
  • Thanks a lot for correction. - alexander - July 10, 2001 - 20:18 UTC