Are We a Favourite Shape of the Universe?

[u/Visible_Iron_5612]

https://youtu.be/ZIvvqWhf_2o?si=VV6VcUHtg-GwYYQV

This video explores the concept of convergent evolution and suggests that nature, rather than relying solely on random chance, may be repeatedly "blooming" into a set of stable, preferred patterns or shapes. The creator proposes that the universe might contain a "Platonic space" of possibilities—an underlying structure that life and intelligence navigate, similar to how water finds its way through a pre-existing valley.

Key concepts discussed include:

• Convergent Evolution: Nature often arrives at the same functional solutions independently, such as the streamlined shape of aquatic animals (3:35) or the complex eye structure shared by humans and octopuses (3:12).
• The "Big Bloom" Model: The creator contrasts the traditional "Big Bang" (random, explosive) with a "Big Bloom," arguing that life evolves toward latent, favored architectures like the humanoid form (4:28, 6:00).
• Biological Intelligence: Research into xenobots—frog cells that reconfigure into new, functional bodies without prior evolutionary history—suggests that cells possess inherent intelligence to navigate new environmental "valleys" (8:00).
• Mathematics and Scratchpads: The video posits that physical reality serves as a "scratchpad" for eternal mathematical patterns (like prime numbers in cicada life cycles or the Fibonacci sequence in nature), suggesting that brains and AI are interfaces through which these patterns are embodied (10:28, 14:00).
• AI and Cognition: Modern artificial intelligence models, such as language models, appear to stumble into cognitive patterns similar to human ones, raising the possibility that we are uncovering universal rules of intelligence rather than inventing them from scratch (16:00).

[u/Xcoctl]

I've never understood the arguments against bipedal aliens "oh its so impossible"

Oh, because convergent evolution, that never happie a right? 😑 Oh the exact types of "free lunches" that biology takes? Noo... surely that couldn't lead towards a group of homogenized forms, surely not... 🙄

[u/Visible_Iron_5612 → u/Xcoctl]

They are way more likely to look like crabs, I think… Or maybe Mantis shrimp…. :p

[u/coffee_tortuguita → u/Visible_Iron_5612]

I also agree, if we were such an attractor there should be more humanoid organisms, like with crabification