The goal of each living thing is to pass on its own genetic information. The limited resources of the world have created a complex, biological community under intense selective pressure. In order to ensure survival of oneself and one's genes, an individual must utilize a competitive reproduction strategy. Genetic adaptations occur over time to make organisms run faster, grow more efficiently, or better detect their food. These evolutionary "decisions" are fairly easy to make: the tradeoff of spending energy on stronger muscles is easily worth it if stronger muscles keep their owner alive.

Numerous reproduction strategies and compromises are evident in nature, and certain constraints favor one or another. If you were given power to design a completely new organism, you would be forced to make a number of decisions regarding its production. Eggs or live young? How many eggs? How much time invested...