Convergence; Simon Conway Morris (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, July 04, 2015, 18:25 (3222 days ago) @ David Turell

The master of convergence is back again with a new book stating that patterns of life will show us aliens that are about like us, if aliens really exist:-http://www.sciencealert.com/aliens-will-look-a-lot-like-us-says-an-expert-on-evolution?cmpid=NL_LS_weekly_2015-07-04-"You can forget about little green men and predatory Xenomorphs: aliens are likely to look a lot like human beings, according to an expert in evolution from the University of Cambridge. In a new book, Simon Conway Morris says that any extra-terrestrial lifeforms will have evolved very much like we have - because an Earth-like planet would be necessary to support life in the first place.-"The theory, called convergent evolution, is actually already well established: the idea is that different species evolve similar characteristics because they're living in a similar environment. One of the most commonly cited examples is the octopus camera eye, which works in much the same way as a human eye. Morris thinks that because alien species will be living on planets like our own, they'll evolve along similar lines.-"The academic discusses the theory in a new book published this week, The Runes Of Evolution. "The book is really trying to persuade the world that evolutionary convergence is completely ubiquitous," Morris told The Independent. "Wherever you look you see it. The theme is to try and drive the reader, gently of course, into the possibility that the things which we regard as most important - cognitive sophistication, large brains, intelligence, tool-making - are also convergent."-"'Therefore, in principle, other Earth-like planets should very much end up with the same sort of arrangement."-"And it doesn't stop at humans either. The Cambridge professor believes that plant and animal life will probably have followed the same evolutionary pattern too."-Comment: I think it is easier to evolve living organisms if pattern plans are set down in advance.