What is "survival of the fittest"

Survival \Sur*viv"al\, n. [From Survive.]

1. A living or continuing longer than, or beyond the existence of, another person, thing, or event; an outliving.

2. (Arh[ae]ol. & Ethnol.) Any habit, usage, or belief, remaining from ancient times, the origin of which is often unknown, or imperfectly known.

   The close bearing of the doctrine of survival on the study of manners and customs.
   --Tylor.

   Survival of the fittest. (Biol.) See Natural selection, under Natural.

n. natural selection.

n. a natural process resulting in the evolution of organisms best adapted to the environment [syn: survival, natural selection, selection]

"Survival of the fittest" is a phrase that originated from Darwinian evolutionary theory as a way of describing the mechanism of natural selection. The biological concept of fitness is defined as reproductive success. In Darwinian terms the phrase is best understood as "Survival of the form that will leave the most copies of itself in successive generations."

Herbert Spencer first used the phrase, after reading Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, in his Principles of Biology (1864), in which he drew parallels between his own economic theories and Darwin's biological ones: "This survival of the fittest, which I have here sought to express in mechanical terms, is that which Mr. Darwin has called 'natural selection', or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life."

Darwin responded positively to Alfred Russel Wallace's suggestion of using Spencer's new phrase "survival of the fittest" as an alternative to "natural selection", and adopted the phrase in The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication published in 1868. In On the Origin of Species, he introduced the phrase in the fifth edition published in 1869, intending it to mean "better designed for an immediate, local environment".

"Survival of the Fittest" is the second single from Mobb Deep's The Infamous album. The song was the duo's second hit single from the album, following " Shook Ones Pt. II". The track peaked at #69 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts and hit the Top 10 on the Hot Rap Singles chart. The song is similar to "Shook Ones Pt. II" in sound and content, featuring a dark piano loop, sampled from The Barry Harris Trio and Al Cohn's "Skylark", and gritty street narratives, and also uses the chorus from that song in a verse.

The remix of the song was featured as a bonus track on the 2004 rerelease of The Infamous. In 2006, the song was included on the compilation album Life of the Infamous: The Best of Mobb Deep. It is sampled in Immortal Technique's "Dance With the Devil" from Revolutionary Vol.1, AZ's "Animal" from The Format, Dilated Peoples' "Worst comes to worst", Epik High's "Follow the Flow", "혼" (Soul) and CunninLynguists' "War" from Southernunderground. Prodigy's opening line "There's a war going on outside, no man is safe from" is sampled in Gang Starr's "1/2 & 1/2". Kanye West also used the line in his verse on the song "Murder to Excellence" from his collaborative album with Jay-Z.

The music video of the song features cameos from Puff Daddy and fellow Queensbridge rapper Nas.

A rock remix with hardcore rock band Sick of it All was featured on the Loud Rocks album in 2000.

The song is also featured on the video game Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure

Survival of the fittest is a metaphor related to the biological theory of evolution.

Survival of the Fittest may also refer to:

Survival of the Fittest is the thirteenth novel by Jonathan Kellerman and is told through the first person point of view of Kellerman's main character, Dr. Alex Delaware. LAPD Detective Milo Sturgis has asked Alex to help him with another whodunit. It reached number two in the New York Times Best Seller list for paperbacks.

Survival of the Fittest is the debut album by the Jazz/Funk quintet The Headhunters. The album was released by Arista Records in 1975. The album features the stand out track "God Make Me Funky", which has been sampled numerous times by prominent rappers.

Labeled as "the best space-funk album" in the CD version, released by BMG France, in 2001. A digipack that includes liner-notes in English and French. This CD version was digitally remastered from the original master tapes in 24-bit by Jean-Pierre Chalbos

Survival of the Fittest (2015) was a two night, two city professional wrestling event produced by the U.S. based wrestling promotion Ring of Honor. It took place on November 13, 2015 at the Turner Hall Ballroom in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and November 14 at the Hopkins Eisenhower Community Center in Hopkins, Minnesota.

"Survival of the Fittest" is the pilot episode of the animated television series The Spectacular Spider-Man, which is based on the comic book character Spider-Man, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. The episode was written and directed by the series developers, Greg Weisman and Victor Cook. In the episode, Spider-Man ( Josh Keaton) faces the evil Vulture ( Robert Englund) as he begins his junior year in high school.

Sony Entertainment originally conceived The Spectacular Spider-Man as a series of four DVDs, and asked Weisman and Cook to develop it. The central idea was to follow Spider-Man in his younger years in the comics; Weisman and Cook wanted to incorporate the styles of the early comic publications by Lee and Ditko. Reviewers have cited other influences in the themes, such as the live action film series and the Ultimate Spider-Man continuity.

"Survival of the Fittest" originally aired on March 8, 2008, on the Kids' WB block on The CW. It had previously been shown to a large audience at the 2008 WonderCon. The episode was the highest rated program of the Kids WB! 2007-2008 combined with the second episode " Interactions" and alone received a Nielsen rating of 1.2/3. It was well received by critics, IGN calling it "a Spider-Man story that feels like classic Spider-Man, and that's a good thing."