Convergence; Simon Conway Morris Teleology (Introduction)

by dhw, Friday, June 10, 2016, 12:59 (2881 days ago) @ David Turell

David's comment: He [Conway Morris] is committed to Darwin, but enthralled by convergence and I think convergence implies teleology as does the author of the article. A resemblance to Denton's patterns is also at play here. It certainly seems as though advances are patterned in advance within the genome.-Since there seems to be a consensus here on the truth of common descent, patterns are inevitable. If we also accept that organisms look for ways to survive and to improve (me) or complexify (you), we have teleology in the sense of individual purpose - as opposed to the sense of divine design. Convergence is then the result of different intelligences coming up with similar solutions to similar problems. If the inventive or complexification mechanism is autonomous, advances are not “patterned in advance” but occur as and when conditions force the mechanism to adapt or allow it to innovate.