Black Swan Events

Biological Parallel

The Chicxulub asteroid 66 million years ago was biology's ultimate black swan: unpredictable, catastrophic, and retrospectively obvious in the geological record. It vaporized 75% of species, ended the dinosaur era, and opened ecological niches that enabled mammalian dominance. Taleb's black swans aren't anomalies to be eliminated—they're the engine of evolutionary innovation. Mass extinctions create the conditions for adaptive radiations, where surviving lineages explosively diversify into newly available niches.