Dollo's Law of Irreversibility
Version 1.0.0 · Updated 2026-07-30
CORE DEFINITION
Evolution is irreversible. Once an organism loses a complex feature (such as eyes or teeth) during evolution, even if the environment reverts to its original state, it cannot re-evolve the exact same feature.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
What is lost cannot be restored. In corporate strategy, if you cut a core capability (such as an R&D team) for short-term profit, do not expect to "buy it back" when you have money later. Once the tacit knowledge and cultural ecosystem that capability depends on is broken, it is gone forever.
Anchor fast decisions
Dollo's law states that evolution is irreversible: a lost complex structure is extremely difficult to reacquire along the same path. The mechanism is that returning to the original path would require coincidentally replaying all intermediate steps.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollo%27s_law_of_irreversibilityverified
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