From: bivalve (bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com)
Date: Tue Oct 21 2003 - 18:48:16 EDT
>Simon Conway Morris's new book, Life's Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe, builds a case for assigning a larger role to convergence so that replaying the tape would yield differences in the details (contingency is real), but significant similarities on more general terms. Any comments?<
Both Gould and Conway Morris are probably influenced by their respective philosophies (agnosticism and Christianity) in their preferences on this count. I think that Gould can be safely identified as having gotten a little too extreme on the role of contingency, e.g. in light of later studies we can see that Wonderful Life overestimated the extent of the weirdness of the Cambrian fuana. See also
http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2003AM/finalprogram/abstract_65020.htm
The author of that abstract has also demonstrated some constraints that favor convergence over contengency. However, we do not know any scientific reason why intelligent life would or would not evolve (it has costs and benefits) nor any particular reason for it to look especially like us.
Overall, from the paleontological evidence I would guess that the basic forms are highly constrained but who fills those forms is very contingent. E.g., the basic nature of the top land carnivore niche has not changed much since it first arose (unless you count our introduction of weapons into the picture), but the spot has been taken by amphibians, mammal-like reptiles, assorted archosaurs (especially rauisuchians), dinosaurs, birds, placental mammals, and marsupials.
As Sarah and George pointed out, God is perfectly capable of bringing about a particular result (e.g., humans) through such a contingent process. To some degree the rewind question is moot-just as the fine tuning argument can always be rejected by claiming we are incredibly lucky to exist, the claim that we are incredibly lucky to exist evolutionarily can be seen instead as an example of incredible fine-tuning.
Dr. David Campbell
Old Seashells
University of Alabama
Biodiversity & Systematics
Dept. Biological Sciences
Box 870345
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0345 USA
bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com
That is Uncle Joe, taken in the masonic regalia of a Grand Exalted Periwinkle of the Mystic Order of Whelks-P.G. Wodehouse, Romance at Droitgate Spa
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