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Posts: 6,445 | Thanked: 20,981 times | Joined on Sep 2012 @ UK
#25
But convergence is natural, endso. On a very high level. Dolphins are a very good example. They are mammals that left the land and adapted to the aquatic life. A streamlined, fish-like form suits that life better than horns, four legs, hooves and an udder. So they evolved to superficially resemble fish, although under the bonnet they are wired differently.

That is very different from assuming that all living things will eventually converge into the same form. Natural history has shown that the exact opposite is the case. All it means is that different living things adapting to the same lifestyle in the same environment (e.g. chasing fast prey in water) tend to evolve forms best suitable for that lifestyle and environment, to the point that they may superficially resemble each other. Corals or anemones are animals but look more like plants due to their lifestyle adaptation.

Similarly, different OSes may have a similar UI but that is only a superficial resemblance due to adapting to the same lifestyle (common use cases) in the same environment (Joe Public's hands). How they work under the bonnet is what distinguishes one OS from another.

You may consider "app stores" and the like part of "what's under the bonnet" and I would agree with you, but even there the nature has been there before: mimicry. Consider creatures as different as bees and wasps. One, an innocent vegetarian, has evolved to mimic the other, a voracious predator, for its own benefit, namely a protection from other predators. You know what it means. Millions of bees that did not look like wasps have died, as do OSes that dare to stray away from familiar infrastructures. Of course, there are other insects that thrive even though they look nothing like wasps and this is what I expected Sailfish to be, but they have chosen the cheap and easy way out by following the familiar path.

By the way, don't get fooled with monocultures. You get them in the nature too. Isn't that what prairies are? Or birch forests? Or shoals of mackerel? The last ones may be mobile but they are still made up from individuals of the same species.
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