Really simple evolution model

Evolution requires something that can almost perfectly copy itself. Adaptation requires a way for those copies to interact with their surroundings that affects their ability to make more copies. Given these conditions, evolution and adaptation are inevitable. You can prove it with a game requiring only a sheet of lined paper, a pen or pencil, and a coin. Here are the rules:
1) drawing is freehand.
2) draw two circles on the first line, approximately the same size.
3) flip the coin.
a) if it comes up heads, each circle gets one copy , as exact as you can draw it, on the next line.
b) if it's tails, the least circular (by eyeball) gets two copies of itself, mistakes and all, as exact as you can draw them, on the next line. The other(s) get one.
4) repeat.
5)Watch how quickly you evolve something that doesn't look at all like a circle. Rule 3b is an adaptation that yields reproductive advantage. Without rule 3b you will still evolve things that don't look like circles, but not as fast, and they won't crowd the line so much. If we replace rule 3 with a rule that says when the line gets full eliminate those copies that look most like circles there is a survival advantage. The combination will evolve faster than either alone.
This is an absurdly simple system where the figure can't even make a copy without you helping. Still, it evolves.
If you would like to get a better appreciation of how evolution works, there are many computer simulations that involve 'genes', 'competition', even 'sex' in addition to adaptation to modify evolution. http://www.alcyone.com/max/links/alife.html contains a number of fascinating links for simulated and computational evolution, at levels from grade school to cutting edge research.
Competitive advantage, 'survival of the fittest' , complex organisms, even life itself, are all results of evolution and adaptation that are frequently mistaken for necessary parts of the process. The discovery that much of our DNA is evolutionarily neutral, just 'along for the ride', was probably held back for quite some time because of our focus on 'survival of the fittest' and adaptive significance. We have evolved both straight and naturally curly hair, but neither is of any particular survival significance. If they were, adaptation would cause one to crowd out the other. Focusing on the simple model helps us remember that evolution does not have to follow our logic, we use our logic to find out what evolution does.