Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

Would intelligent aliens look like us?

Share
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Flipboard
Print
Email

From evolutionary biologist Matthew Wills at RealClearScience:

Ultimately, the jury is out on the extent to which intelligent aliens – if they exist – would resemble us. It may or may not be significant that humans have just two eyes and ears (just enough for stereo vision and hearing), and just two legs (reduced from the initially more stable four). Many other organs also come in pairs as a consequence of our evolutionarily deep-seated – and perhaps inevitable – bilateral symmetry. Still other elements of our body plan are probably nothing more than chance. The fact that we have hands and feet with five digits is a consequence of the fixation on five in our early tetrapod ancestors – close relatives experimented with seven or eight. More.

It’s an interesting article but the assumption that nature is not designed actually makes it impossible to know what aliens would look like.

See also: Math can’t conjure aliens?

and

Astrobiology is exceedingly rigorous

Follow UD News at Twitter!

Comments

Leave a Reply