red-queen effect
The Red Queen effect is a phenomenon in biology where organisms must continuously adapt and evolve simply to maintain their current level of fitness, as they are constantly competing against other organisms that are also evolving and adapting. In other words, in order to stay in the same place, organisms must run as fast as they can just to keep up with others. The term is inspired by a character in Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking-Glass" who tells Alice, "It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place."
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