Convergent Evolution and Multiple Discovery

Convergent evolution is “the development of similar structures in distantly related organisms as a result of adapting to similar environments and/or strategies of life”. I’ve talked before about multiple independent simultaneous discovery and invention in science, technology, and art. I’ve mentioned that multiple discovery supports an evolutionary view of culture, but I haven’t really discussed [...]

The Evolution of Movies

In a previous post, I discussed multiple, independent, simultaneous discovery in science and technology, which supports the claim that science evolves. The authors of Multiple Discovery devote a chapter to arts and literature, but their main focus is science. I was thinking about multiple, independent, simultaneous creation in the arts, and I recalled several cases [...]

The Heroic Theory of Scientific Development

The history of science has been a series of blows to the ego of humanity. Copernicus showed us that our home, Earth, is not the centre of the universe; it’s just another planet. Darwin showed us that our species, Homo sapiens, is not special; it’s just another species of animal. But, although our planet is [...]