Convergent Evolution is not random: Simon Conway-Morris, Cambridge University professor

 University of Cambridge as well as a fellow of Saint John’s College, and he recently published the book From Extraterrestrials to Animal Minds, in which he dismantles six myths of evolution.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHS3pnX1Eqs 

 One myth that Dr. Simon Conway Morris confronts in his latest book is the idea that evolution happens randomly. In fact, there is an amazing amount of order at work behind the processes of evolution. Dan and Dr. Conway Morris look at convergent evolution and mass extinctions as two examples of events that may seem random, but when examined more closely they shed light on the intricately ordered science of evolution. One of the most interesting subtopics of evolution is the evolution of humans. Humans are unique in many ways, including our capacity for sophisticated language and rational thought. Dr. Conway Morris describes the profound differences between humans, other animals, and AI, most notably our capacity for imagination and prospection about the future. Dan and Dr. Conway Morris also discuss whether the evolution of humans was inevitable, and ponder whether humans will become even more complex as we continue to evolve.

 I read his 2003 book soon after it was published... 20 years later!

 Turning from fossils to minds, Conway Morris critically examines the popular tenet that the intelligence of humans and animals are the same thing, a difference of degree, not kind. A closer scrutiny of our minds shows that, in reality, an unbridgeable gulf separates us from even the chimpanzees, so begging questions of consciousness and Mind.

Finally, Conway Morris tackles the question of extraterrestrials. Undoubtedly, the size and scale of the universe suggest that alien life must exist somewhere beyond Earth and our tiny siloed solar system? After all, evolutionary convergence more than hints that human-like forms are universal. But Dr. Conway Morris has serious doubts. The famous Fermi Paradox (“Where are they?”) appears to hold: Alone in the cosmos—and unique, but not quite in the way one might expect.

Nor is it random. This popular notion holds that evolution proceeds blindly, with no endgame. But Conway Morris suggests otherwise, pointing to evidence that the processes of evolution are “seeded with inevitabilities.” 

If that is so, then what about mass extinctions? Don’t they steer the development of life in radically new directions? Rather the reverse, claims Conway Morris. Such cataclysms accelerate evolutionary developments that were going to happen anyway. And what about that other evolutionary canard: the “missing link”? There is plenty to choose from in the fossil record, but persistently overlooked is that in any group, there is not one but a phalanx of “missing links.” Once again, we under-score the near-inevitability of evolutionary outcomes.

I don't agree with everything he claims but he's got some great points.