Okay, okay, that “self-aware” part is in the publisher’s title (based on the author’s own earlier usage though).
The book is generally about convergence in evolution, a subject on which Conway Morris is an expert. See Map of Life.
New book from Templeton, The Runes of Evolution, How the Universe Became Self-Aware :
How did human beings acquire imaginations that can conjure up untrue possibilities? How did the Universe become self-aware? In The Runes of Evolution, Simon Conway Morris revitalizes the study of evolution from the perspective of convergence, providing us with compelling new evidence to support the mounting scientific view that the history of life is far more predictable than once thought.
A leading evolutionary biologist at the University of Cambridge, Conway Morris came into international prominence for his work on the Cambrian explosion (especially fossils of the Burgess Shale) and evolutionary convergence, which is the process whereby organisms not closely related (not monophyletic), independently evolve similar traits as a result of having to adapt to similar environments or ecological niches.
In The Runes of Evolution, he illustrates how the ubiquity of convergence hints at an underlying framework whereby many outcomes, not least brains and intelligence, are virtually guaranteed on any Earth-like planet. Conway Morris also emphasizes how much of the complexity of advanced biological systems is inherent in microbial forms.
It’s a hard thesis to test, really, because we don’t know of any other Earth-like planets. And if origin of life researcher Robert Hazen is right (Earth is mineralogically unique in the cosmos), we might be a while finding a suitable test.
By casting a wider net, The Runes of Evolution explores many neglected evolutionary questions. Some are remarkably general. Why, for example, are convergences such as parasitism, carnivory, and nitrogen fixation in plants concentrated in particular taxonomic hot spots? Why do certain groups have a particular propensity to evolve toward particular states?
And questions like, do bees dream?
Speaking of patterns in evolution, see also Researchers say larger size is a genuine pattern in evolution, not neutral drift
If there is such a pattern, it implies some sort of inherent design in the universe, no?
Darwin follower Jerry Coyne, who hasn’t read the book, doesn’t like it already. But then Coyne called Simon Conway Morris a creationist in 2009. (In recent years, “creationist” has become merely a content-free term of abuse, based on who is called one.)
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