io9
If Ben Stein really wants to convince us all that evolution is a crock, he doesn't need to make a documentary and play semantic games with Richard Dawkins. He just has to sit us down and make us watch this episode of Star Trek: Voyager, where traveling at super-warp speed causes Janeway and Paris to super-evolve into lizards (and make lizard babies.) But it's not just Voyager — science fiction provides a ton of evolution theories that make intelligent design seem downright sensible.
If Ben Stein really wants to convince us all that evolution is a crock, he doesn't need to make a documentary and play semantic games with Richard Dawkins. He just has to sit us down and make us watch this episode of Star Trek: Voyager, where traveling at super-warp speed causes Janeway and Paris to super-evolve into lizards (and make lizard babies.) But it's not just Voyager — science fiction provides a ton of evolution theories that make intelligent design seem downright sensible.
7. When one person displays a new and bizarre ability, that's the work of evolution, because survival of the fittest is making only the strongest genes survive. Actually, if there's only one person in the entire world who can shoot cherry-colored death rays out of his eyes, that's not evolution — that's a mutation. It's evolution if the cherry-eyebeam guy has a easier time mating with Famke Janssen than anyone else, and thus makes tons of babies, all of whom can do the red-eyeblast thing. Mutations are only the building blocks of evolution, not the result of evolution. Go back to school, Mohinder.
6. Evolution is puberty. In the X-Men, for some reason, bizarre powers always manifest themselves whenever they first start getting hair in new and unusual places. And it's always treated as though the person's development as an individual is a form of, or a manifestation of, evolution. It's like puberty goes hand in hand with the sudden emergence of weird new genes, and your changes as an individual is confused with the transformation of your whole species. I also love the idea that there's one X-gene, which somehow activates a whole range of powers, from heat-vision to being a chicken-man.
5. Creatures with totally different ancestors will end up looking sorta the same, just because. Biologist and science fiction author Joan Slonczewski says a big problem with most science fiction is that it depicts convergent evolution as happening all the time — that's why aliens look sort of human, and aliens and humans can inter-breed. In fact, divergent evolution is way, way more common than convergent evolution. Divergent evolution is when creatures who share a single ancestor — like, say, mammals — evolve to be very different from each other over time. You're not likely to get just one unique creature in an ecosystem, like the great worm in Dune. Instead, you're likely to get a diversity of creatures from one ancestor. Convergent evolution, when creatures with different ancestors evolve to be similar because they're filling a similar evolutionary niche, is much rarer. (An example of convergent evolution, says Slonczewski: birds, bats and flying fish.)
4. Your children will inherit your body-mods. Maybe the earliest evolutionary theorist was Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829) who believed in the idea of "soft inheritance," where you pass on your acquired characteristics to your kids. If your body adapts to circumstances during your life — for example, if a particular organ gets smaller because you use it less — then your children will inherit it. (That organ will be smaller in your kids.) In fact, only genetic changes are passed on. But that doesn't stop science fiction from presenting changes to a creature's body, or non-genetic adaptations that you make in the course of your life, as being heritable. (Lamarck's ideas are sometimes mischaracterized as, "if you lose a leg, you'll have one-legged children," but he wasn't that silly.) In David Cronenberg's 1979 classic The Brood, a cutting-edge psychotherapy causes patients to manifest their darkest emotions in their own bodies — and one transformed woman gives birth to monster children that she can control telepathically. 
3. Humans could evolve overnight into a new species in just one generation. In Greg Bear's Darwin's Radio, humans' junk DNA suddenly starts expressing, and certain people are strongly sexually attracted to each other. These chosen people's children, the ones who survive, are a radically different species from homo sapiens. And Bear shows how this is just like when homo sapiens suddenly sprung up overnight, nearly 200,000 years ago. The new breed of humans are super-intelligent and mega-awesome. But it's pretty unlikely that super-rapid evolution would happen within only one generation.
2. It's possible to de-evolve people with rayguns or whatnot. Because evolution is a straight line and always happens in totally predictable ways, it's also a reversible process. You just need the right "de-evolution" device, like in the totally radical movie Mario Bros., where Dennis Hopper's King Koopa, who turns anyone who opposes him into a primordial sludge. Or, in the Next Generation episode "Genesis," a mutated T-virus from whiner-in-chief Reg Barclay causes everybody on the ship to start devolving — including Captain Picard, who starts turning into a lemur/pygmy/marmoset hybrid. Because Picard's too multi-faceted a guy to devolve into just one type of creature. Something similar also happens in the Doctor Who episode "Ghost Light," where an evolution-doubting clergyman is somehow de-evolved into an ape.
(Which reminds me: How exactly did "Ghost Light"'s interplanetary explorer/surveyor character travel all the way across the galaxy to survey Earth, but manage to be unaware of evolution? Is Earth the only planet where creatures don't just stay the same forever?)
1. We can predict evolution and accelerate it with technobabble. Random weird things, like going really really fast, or getting exposed to weird radiation, or just eating some weird fish, will cause you to evolve 1,000,000 years into the future, like in that Voyager clip above. And then there's the totally AWESOME Voyager episode where the crew meets the long-distant descendants of Earth's dinosaurs, who are spacefaring and intelligent. Janeway deduces they're the great-great-great-great-grandkids of the dinos by asking the computer to predict dinosaur evolution millions of years ahead. Because, of course, evolution is completely predictable in a vacuum, and you don't need to know anything about enviornmental factors.
Comments
You could probably make the same argument for all other fields of science being horribly abused and battered by sci-fi plots since the dawn of time.
And the rest of the space-faring dinosaurs have been trapped in an underground city by King Koopa. Who proceeds to de-evolve them all.
"...science fiction provides a ton of evolution theories that make intelligent design seem downright sensible."
That's cause it *is* downright sensible :D
...But why is Riker giving us the finger?
@Smeagol92055: He's flipping us the pterodactyl.
[io9.com]
Why is "Cro-Mag Riker" flipping-off Pickard's fish?
I thought that was just for homo-sapiens.
This article connects really well with the article io9 posted a week or two ago which featured a SETI scientist explaining the arrogance of searching for extra-terrestrial intelligence in the first place. Evolution isn't positivistic. Later generations aren't by definition "better" than those previous. They're just the product of ample baby-making. And don't discount the possibility of a later generation being a complete dead-end.
I think, in Dune, the sandworms were non-native and invasive.
I'll argue #4.
The only proof I need is Michael Jackson.
How could he have had those blue eyed, blonde straight haired babies if it wasn't from bleaching his skin... err, umm I mean his Vitaligo.
@Trystero: That's a really good point... There's this presumption that evolution is always an improvement. Which isn't necessarily so.
Hey, don't knock off Voyager for that. I always assumed it was a given that the computer did the calculations knowing the environmental factors involved.
@DaoKaioshin: Yep that's your problem.. bad case of Dune worms...
@Charlie Jane Anders: That is a nice run down of stupidity in the Sci-fi evolutionary science..
The X-men one is kinda weak.. they generally say the genes are dormant not that you evolve at that point..
And people's secondary sexual development does cause a whole bunch of latent systems to become active..
But really it is:
A) a cheap way to deal with not having obvious from birth freak mutants
B) make teenagers identify with the heroes of comic books...
And no big surprise that Voyager tops the list that show was just one "flipping the pterodactyl" at science after another...
@Guizzy: Ha.. that reminds me of the worse computer interaction in ST:TNG...
(I looked it up, from "Home Soil")
Doctor Beverly Crusher: Analyse, the pattern of the flashes.
Computer Voice: Not repetitive or sequential. Pattern not recognized.
Doctor Beverly Crusher: What is the source of the flashes?
Computer Voice: Unable to specify. Theoretically not possible from this substance.
Doctor Beverly Crusher: Disregard incongruity and theorize as to source.
Computer Voice: [bleeps extensively] Life.
"Computer override logic and speculate.. "
What the Hell! (stupid writers, don't have computers theorize..)
A very interesting/amazing piece of convergent evolution on Earth is the eye. It is NOT amazing that fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds all have the same structure of eye (slight differences, like no color vision for dogs) because we all share a common ancestor with an eye. What IS amazing is that the squid has exactly the same style of eye, despite not sharing a common ancestor with an eye. In other words, the rather intricate structure of our eye evolved twice on the same planet. I'll lay money that by the time we find 1000 alien phyla, at least one will have an eye very much like ours. Yessiree, putting it all on the line with that bet. :)
That Marko Djurdjevic cover almost makes me forget how much I dislike X-Men.
@Nudemanatee: Squid eyes are actually "better" than our (mammalian) eyes because their rods and cones are facing inward, toward the pupil, instead of outward with a bunch of other cells in between them and the incoming light. So now who's more evolved?
@Nudemanatee: Actually a squid's eye is reversed from ours (and most/all other animals).. Our neurons face backwards (light passes through the neurons before hitting the receptors), the squid's face forward...
Nice piece of convergent evolution (except that we most likely have a common ancestor way back (like the kind of flukes that have spots that just sense light/dark but can't see)
@TheRealVeon: Jinx.. sort of.
And then there's the totally AWESOME Voyager episode where the crew meets the long-distant descendants of Earth's dinosaurs, who are spacefaring and intelligent.
If by "awesome" you mean "contender for most astoundingly stupid plot in sci-fi history". (Sorry Charlie, couldn't resist the hyperbole.) A 5-year-old could probably pick it apart. If the dinosaurs had an advanced space-capable civilization on Earth, why is there absolutely zero evidence of it anywhere, not even the tiniest little scrap on any inch of the Earth we've investigated? It makes no sense, in the flat-out staring-you-in-the-face way that makes suspension of disbelief impossible.
That and the one in the thumbnail where Janeway and Paris "evolve" and mate have just reminded me how much I disliked Voyager. Heck, you guys could probably write up a pretty meaty feature article on the worst episodes of Voyager (plenty to pick from - I nominate the one that pits 7 of 9 against The Rock in a cage match!), or all the ways in which Voyager epically failed (ruining the Borg, and so on).
Hopefully this isn't a double post. Scarily, Idiocracy managed to get it mostly right (at least in the first five minutes).
4 can also be (sort-of) debated. Epigenetics (heritable information other than DNA sequence, such as gene methylation) can be acquired during an organism's life, and then passed on to its progeny. In some cases, this could even be the result of evolutionary pressure. There was a study of Irish immigrants, which found that those who had grandfathers who had been in Ireland during the famine when they (the gradfathers) were about 10, the individuals being studied had more efficient metabolisms, and lower rates of heart disease. The theory was that the famine conditions sent a signal to the grandfathers' cellular machinery to inactivate or activate expression of certain genes, which was heritable in a regular fashion. It's a bit of a stretch from that to "body mods" in general, but in theory applicable. i.e. don't feed your kids, and your great-grandkids might be healthier.
My problem with shows like Heroes is ascribing powers that are really 'magical' to evolution. No mutation is going to let you walk through solid matter, or stop time, or travel through time, or absorb the powers (mutations?) of someone else, etc... This isnt science based, its a magical story.
From last night's House:
HOUSE
These people think you are not too nice.
PATIENT
Too nice? For what?
HOUSE
For life as we know it to have evolved without an intelligent designer. I am going to prove them wrong. Your wife is very ugly.
@Charlie Jane Anders: I rarely, if ever do this, but +1.
@DocGratis: So we're really seeing everything backwards? Or is everything backwards and our eyes don't know any better? Or do squids use YTREWQ keyboards?
How exactly did "Ghost Light"'s interplanetary explorer/surveyor...
It's not that he was unaware of evolution. But as representing the collecting desire of Victoriana, he became fixated on the complete catalog. What he should have known was an inevitability became an impossibility, because of how deeply he was fixated on his task, especially when all the parts started rebelling.
Or, look at it from a punctuated equilibrium meets Imperialism standpoint. He may have expected relatively little change, the sort of change, however, that was vastly accelerated by multi-national actions in the industrial age, where, for instance, the bacteria had been exposed to other bacteria he wouldn't have predicted its exposure.
Or it'd been a while, and he never paid much attention in school. Or it was largely the doctor forcing him into a strange position in that wonderful McCoy Speech to the Villain way.
Or it was the sonic screwdriver. If all else fails, it's that. Oh, wait, none in that episode, so it has to be a reverse in the polarity of the neutron flow.
@Zapp Brannigan's Girdle: We see everything "right" because our brains have been trained since birth to see correctly...
And acutaly the image that hits our retinas is upside down... it is simple optics.. and we only have one lens..
Dogs see color. It is a myth that they only see black and white. Although the color they see is not as vivid as the color we see, they do indeed see color. In many ways, their eyes are much better than our's. They can see movement much better than we can.
@DaoKaioshin: "I think, in Dune, the sandworms were non-native and invasive."
I don't remember that. I thought they were native, they were the source of the spice, and the "larval" form were the "sandtrout" that made such an awesome living stillsuit in the second or third book. But it's been a long time, I could be wrong.
@starbuck1011: I hate to defend ST Voyager (seriously!), but you made a mistake here:
If the dinosaurs had an advanced space-capable civilization on Earth, why is there absolutely zero evidence of it anywhere, not even the tiniest little scrap on any inch of the Earth we've investigated?
According to The World Without Us, if humans were to disappear today then 65 million years later there would be no convincing evidence that our civilization existed. Even those unbiodegradable diapers will be gone.
Makes you wonder about the Sleestak...
@starbuck1011: I feel as though the voyager-sucked blog post has been written many, many times already... I don't know if I can really add to it!
The sandworms are indiginious to Dune. The Good Sisters discovered what was required to transplant a worm to a different world. This was done by first transplanting sand trout, which became worms when the desertification was complete enough.
I liked Bear's "hypothesis." It sounded like real science and made sense. Who knows, the same sort of triggers in the environment that suddenly starts life, maybe the same sort of quick "fix" that may quickly transform our species.
Don't forget Larry Niven's Pak species, of which humans are the "breeder" stage (long story)...
[en.wikipedia.org]
@cljohnston108: Tree of Life or something like that started the change, didn't it?
@icelight: There was a similar study about Holocaust survivors, whose children had higher incidents of diabetes than average--again, the theory is that, due to lack of food, their pancreases started shutting down, and then somehow passed a genetic marker on to their kids.
It's actually not unreasonable that there'd be a system for passing on environmental physical adaptations onto your kids. In fact, it could be downright handy.
Surely there's a place in this article somewhere for a mention of the Cat from Red Dwarf, no? One pregnant housecat + 3 million years = one stylish dude.
@Jeff-Minor: Check. But only after the Breeders were done breedin'. Not evolutionary, more like puberty 2.0
@MagnusRobotFighter:
The uranium we use in power plants and bombs have a half life of millions of years.
@braak: In both the holocaust study and the Irish famine study, large percentage of the population died. Any uncommon genetic trait then has a good probability of becoming more prevalent. For example, throw 100 dices and pick 10. There's a good chance you will get 3 dices of the same number. If we copy those 10 dices (reproduction), that number will occur 30%, which is higher than the average of 17% before.
Just to quibble (because, hay, why not?) the earliest evolutionary hteory was presented not by Lemark but by Anaximander of Miletus (c. 610 BC-c. 546 BC).
I also love the fact that having superpowers is heritable in Heroes, but the precise superpowers the kids get are completely unrelated to those of their parents. ...Sometimes.
Kitty Pryde and Slayer-strength Sybil have a baby and it's... Ex Machina? He can talk to machines instead of having some combination of walking through walls and super strength? What?
The Human Torch and Flying Man have a child and it's... The Cheerleader, with Wolverine's healing abilities.
But then Parkman senior and junior have the same powers.
@Signal: I'm trying to look for some citation about this theory of evolutionary events that I learned way back in high-school. One was that the rapid evolutionary periods (one called "Cambrian Explosion" where almost all animals came into existence) was the result of mass extinction events that wiped out most species. The survivors spread out across the globe and found their different niches. Can anyone provide some references?
And we learned in BUFFY that beer can cause de-evolution.
The "warp 10" episode of VOYAGER may be my favorite episode because it is just so BAD! I almost bought the mutant Tom Paris action figure, w/little mutant babies, just because.
Beginning with agriculture, humans have effectively removed themselves from the natural processes of evolution, giving them the mistaken idea that they are the ultimate result of evolution rather than the unfinished product they are.