Darwin’s Theory of Evolution (Natural Selection) cannot take place off Earth!
Copyright 2020. InterAmerica, Inc.
The idea that extraterrestrials would look like “little
greys” is astoundingly errant.
All species, flora and fauna, if extant on planers elsewhere
– yes, a possibility – would not and cannot evolve (progress) over time as life
on Earth has.
Perhaps they were born intact, in situ, by some
natural quirk indig- enous to the planet upon which they exist, an admittedly
hard reality to imagine. But even then they would not look or be any- thing similar to life on Earth.
Summaries of Darwinism are rather lame but here are a few
links (from the internet for those inclined to use/see that as a legitimate
source):
"In the animal world we have seen that the vast majority of
species live in societies, and that they find in association the best arms for
the struggle for life: understood, of course, in its wide Darwinian sense—not
as a struggle for the sheer means of existence, but as a struggle against all natural
conditions unfavourable to the species. The animal species, in which
individual struggle has been reduced to its narrowest limits, and the practice
of mutual aid has attained the greatest development, are invariably the most
numerous, the most prosperous, and the most open to further progress. The
mutual protection which is obtained in this case, the possibility of attaining
old age and of accumulating experience, the higher intellectual development,
and the further growth of sociable habits, secure the maintenance of the
species, its extension, and its further progressive evolution. The unsociable
species, on the contrary, are doomed to decay."
—Peter Kropotkin, Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902),
Conclusion
[About finches in the Galápagos Islands] "What mechanism
could explain how each finch population had acquired adaptations, or features
that made it well-suited to its immediate environment?"
https://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-guides/biology/plant-biology/evolution/darwins-theory-of-evolution
"Evolution, as understood by biologists, is the change
through time that occurs in populations of organisms in response to changing environments."
Darwin provided a math overlay for his theory:
The theory (or Darwinism) is not simply rendered but shows
that whatever took place on Earth is unique and could not be duplicated
anywhere in the Universe unless that anywhere would be an exact duplicate of
Earth: it’s climate (meteorology), geology, molecular exactness, atmosphere,
and all the other vicissitudes that are particular to this planet.
Thus no species could arise extraterrestrially that would
look like something familiar to us: humanlike, (unless one falls back on the
canard that living beings have been formed in the image of God, all across the
heavens – the known universe -- something so intellectually and scientifically
perverse that to even mention it is sheer madness).
For ufologists and UFO advocates to keep insisting that
little grey humanoids are the masters of UFOs is an insanity that mocks
humanity.
RR
posted by RRRGroup at
Thursday, April 09, 2020
6 Comments:
As much as I am amenable to the trajectory of the conjecture here (even more when applied to social rather than merely natural history)...
One complication is convergence: the evolution of a characteristic absent a common ancestor, e.g., the eye or flight. Such features seem evolutionary responses to features of the environment, certain wavelengths of the EM spectrum or a gaseous environment.
I link a publicly-readable recent (2017) paper probing exobiological evolution for interested parties.
N.b. I'm not taking sides here, just thickening the plot (or enriching the bolus...)
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/89B3E0F2165EB8D63A7C5EAA7D9702D3/S1473550417000362a.pdf/div-class-title-darwin-s-aliens-div.pdf
By
Bryan Sentes, at Friday, April 10, 2020
Thank you for the link Bryan.
The paper is quite wonderful -- I'm afraid that readers here might not take the time to paste it in their browser.
The concluding comments sum up the intent of the authors:
When making predictions about aliens, we must take advantage of our entire scientific toolkit. Mechanistic understanding is a good way to extrapolate from what we see on Earth. The theory is a good way to make predictions that are independent of the details of the
Earth. Combining both approaches is the best way to make predictions about the many hundreds, thousands or millions of hypothetical aliens. Now we just need to find them.
I find the paper supports my sub-text that alien life-forms will not look like anything or be like anything on Earth.
The main point of the paper being that "evolution" may work on other life-possible planets is not lost on me.
I just find it to be in the possible range not the probable range.
It's another trope for "We are not alone" -- that sad plea for those who need to feel that humans are not a species bereft of companionship in the Universe.
RR
By
RRRGroup, at Friday, April 10, 2020
One consideration, though, is convergence. Vertebrates and invertebrates both evolved eyes, though they share no ocular common ancestor.
Likewise, gravity will conceivably demand forms of locomotion (slithering, swimming, walking, flying) like we have on earth. Which is all to say, extraterrestrial life will be wild in its variety, but possibly not unlike organisms on earth, too. Which says nothing about "intelligence" let alone technology...
As for our not begin alone, I guess it's a question of the company we're looking for. The ETHers are looking for themselves. Plant intelligence researcher Stefano Mancuso opens our eyes to what we share with plants, let alone our animal kin. The earth swarms with life; it's our hubris or lack of sensibility that prevents us from perceiving its intelligence.
By
Bryan Sentes, at Friday, April 10, 2020
I see your desire for life elsewhere Bryan.
May I suggest you find, in the current New Yorker, the piece by Jill LePore on loneliness: The Isolation Ward.
We need to get you back into the classroom.....fast.
RR
By
RRRGroup, at Friday, April 10, 2020
I see no reason why extraterrestrial life should resemble Earth life. (Actually, the suggestion that e.g. a humanoid form is some kind of standard, seems so unimaginative.)
Lately I`ve been reading articles (published in peer reviewed journals), where some reseachers suggest that alien life could be stars or that black holes could be hiding advanced civilizations who are more interested in their inner space than conquering outer space...
JC
By
Jerry Cornelius, at Friday, April 10, 2020
Jerry:
I keep pressing the idea that ETs would be stranger than we imagine -- bumping the little greys out of the picture (unless they're from our future) -- but a few keep pushing them back into focus.
That ARRIVAL movie was spot on, but several readers here like the comfort of frail, small-framed little guys....and I can guess why.
RR
By
RRRGroup, at Friday, April 10, 2020
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