The famous essay title "Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution" (1973, Theodosius Dobzhansky) perhaps should say "Nothing Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution". In human bureaucracies, for instance, countless structures and processes that seem inexplicable turn out, upon a bit of reflection, to be quite appropriate survival-responses based on historical events. Checks and balances, redundant paperwork, baroque feedback loops and inefficiencies, etc., often were put into place after disasters happened decades or even centuries ago. Fascinating, from operational and historical and systems-engineering viewpoints. The same applies to gnarly traffic routes, kitchen recipes, computer user interfaces, popular music, ...

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