History Main / GoalOrientedEvolution

* ''WildArms3'': The Prophets describe five stages of evolution; they hope to evolve the world into its final stage. Even the characters who call out this notion as BS believe the dragons lived at their "evolutionary apex" before dying out. [[spoiler: The former statement is justified oddly in that the Prophets were under the coercion of the ego-maniacal Demons.]]

** ''StarTrekEnterprise'': The episode "Dear Doctor" showcased the "path evolution is supposed to take" misconception. This was his justification for refusing to ''cure a plague'' he had a cure for, leading some like SFDebris to accuse him of genocide.

** ''StarTrekVoyager'': The [[CanonDiscontinuity infamous]] episode ''"Threshold"'' [[PlayingWithATrope plays with]] this trope. Tom Paris undergoes "accelerated evolution" after travelling at trans-[[FasterThanLightTravel warp]] speeds, and eventually reaches humanity's evolutionary goal -- he turns into a giant newt. (He got better). The episode's writers later revealed that their idea was to show that the final "goal" of human evolution could turn out to be something seemingly primitive, rather than the "advanced", hyper-intelligent forms of life that this trope usually results in.
** Back to ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': One of the later episodes, ''The Chase'', reveals that all life in the Alpha Quadrant had descended from microbes seeded by a race of precursors billions of years ago. Somehow, because the microbes came from the precursors' homeworld, they were able to develop into multiple humanoid species on hundreds of different planets. At the same time. Who can interbreed with each other.

** Studies have shown that, outside their specialties, most scientists are no more informed than [[ThisLoserIsYou the general public]]—handily averting the OmnidisciplinaryScientist.

** Can be played straight however. We humans do it to animals all the time. How else could we get [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chihuahua_dog this]] from [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chihuahua_dog this?]]

In actual evolutionary theory, the goal (unconscious or instinctive for most species) is to have offspring that survives most suitably in the current environment who themselves have surviving offspirng. Change isn't oriented toward any goal except survival.

** ''StarTrekVoyager'': The [[CanonDiscontinuity infamous]] episode ''"Threshold"'' is based on this trope. Tom Paris undergoes "accelerated evolution" after travelling at trans-[[FasterThanLightTravel warp]] speeds, and eventually reaches the final goal of human evolution -- he turns into a giant newt. (He got better). The episode's writers later revealed that their idea was to show that no-one knows what the "goal" of human evolution may be -- it could end up being a seemingly primitive form rather than some big-brained, hyper-advanced cliché. Thus, this trope was the very foundation on which the story was built.

A common subtrope of HollywoodEvolution, evolution is depicted as, or believed by a character to be, being directed toward a goal, most commonly [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascension]] or superpowered or [[HumanAlien humanoid]], rather than toward whatever is best adapted to the environment. Generally, things being described as "more evolved" is a very good indicator this trope is present.

In actual evolutionary theory, the goal (unconscious or instinctive for most species) is to have surviving offspring who themselves have surviving offspring. Change isn't oriented toward any goal except survival.

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* In the 1986 film version of TheFly: the afflicted remarks "I seem to be stricken by a disease with a purpose, wouldn't you say?"


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* Averted. As far as the experts can tell, the "purpose" of evolution is to adapt the organism to its surroundings. Other than that, it doesn't have any goal at the end of it.

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** Another episode, "[[http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/The_Lazarus_Experiment The Lazarus Experiment]]", had the bad guy of the week use a molecule-rearranging room to de-age himself... with the side-effect that he would occasionally turn into a hulking beast that had to suck the life essence out of other people. The Doctor explains it by saying the genetic rearrangement had accidentally activated genes from evolutionary paths humans passed by and never used. Of course, given the Doctor's [[TimeyWimeyBall way of explaining things]], this is likely just the best he can do to explain a much more convoluted concept.
** In the first Dalek story, the Thals had mutated into something hideous, then back again into good-looking space elves in leather trousers because that was, supposedly, the most perfect form. In ''Genesis of the Daleks'', Davros worked out what the Kaled race ''was going to evolve into'' as a result of the centuries-long ABC war they'd been having with the Thals. (Apparently it was a green blob that would require a motorised dustbin if it was going to get around.)

** In ''[[http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Full_Circle Full Circle]]'', the inhabitants of planet Alzarius include humans, enemy FishPeople called Marshmen, and giant spiders. As it turns out, [[spoiler:the humans are descendants of Marshmen, and the Marshmen of spiders, and this is in some sense "destined" to continue in the future. So not only is Alzarian evolution "directed", but its pathways are very, very different from Earth's!]]

* ''Comicbook/XMen'': Many characters (particularly the villains) believe that mutants are the next stage of humanity or its successor. In fact, it appears mutants, humans, Inhumans, and other species were experiments towards some vague goal set up by the Celestials.

* Played with in the fiction portion of ''The Science of Discworld'', in which the native life forms of Roundworld keep evolving civilizations which the wizards hail as the pinnacle of creation, only to be wiped out to a crab/lizard/bear/whatever by cometary impacts and other catastrophes. So even if intelligence ''were'' something evolution was actively working towards, extinction couldn't care less.

* WildArms3: The Prophets describe five stages of evolution; they hope to evolve the world into its final stage. Even the characters who call out this notion as BS believe the dragons lived at their "evolutionary apex" before dying out. [[spoiler: The former statement is justified oddly in that the Prophets were under the coercion of the ego-maniacal Demons.]]

* WildArms3: The Prophets describe five stages of evolution; they hope to evolve the world into its final stage. This notion is strongly opposed by other characters; though not exactly on scientific grounds; they believe the dragons lived at their "evolutionary apex" before dying out.

* ''TheAdventuresOfTheRatFamily'' by JulesVerne: There's an explicit hierarchy of life-forms (with rats somewhere around the middle, above invertebrates and fish but below birds and most other mammals), and the aim of every living thing is to evolve into the highest form of life, which is of course Man.

* ''TheThreeStigmataOfPalmerEldritch'' by PhilipKDick: Set {{twenty minutes into the future}}, the novel features "evolutionary therapy" becoming popular among the rich. It makes your [[MyBrainIsBig cranium large and bubble-like]], and even increases your intelligence, although in rare cases it can backfire and ''de''-evolve you into a monkey-like state. The best part? It works by stimulating the ''gland that controls evolution''.

A common subtrope of HollywoodEvolution, evolution is depicted as, or believed by a character to be, being directed toward a goal, most commonly [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascension]] or SuperPowers or [[HumanAlien humanoid]], rather than toward whatever is best adapted to the environment. Generally, things being described as "more evolved" is a very good indicator this trope is present.