>> Besides, Gould once stated that the contingency based character of >> natural selection was such that if evolution were replayed millions >> of times, intelligence would not appear on the planet.
> Gould likes to emphasize that evolution has no direction. He says the
> only exception is the very simplest forms of life because if they were
> any simpler they wouldn't be alive at all so any change can only be
> toward more complexity. After this minimum requirement has been met
> the number of species that become more complex is no greater than the
> number that become simpler.
--Paul Krugman
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC