Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, and the Future of Evolution

by Jonathan B. Losos

There’s a reason that dolphins and sharks look so much alike—they evolved the same body shape to move rapidly through the water in pursuit of prey. The eyes of octopuses and humans are nearly indistinguishable because the ancestors of both evolved very similar organs to detect and focus light. The list of evolutionary convergences

If evolution is dominated by contingency, then there can be no predictability, no Conway Morrisian determinism.