The Zoologist's Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal About Aliens - And Ourselves
Arik Kershenbaum
Penguin Press
Nonfiction, Animals/Science
Themes: Aliens, Cross-Genre
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Description
For generations, humans have speculated on what life on other worlds might be like. Given the many strange surprises and wonders that have evolved on Earth, and in the most unlikely of places, what could an entirely alien ecosystem produce? So far, aside from speculation (and innumerable offerings of science fiction and Hollywood), nobody knows, but it is possible to make some educated guesses. After all, while the details may be unknowable (such as whether alien biomes would use DNA as a basic genetic material, or show right/left body symmetry as the majority of Earth animals do), some things - the basic physics of locomotion, a need to consume nutrients and reproduce, adaptability in the face of changes and the opening or closing of niches, the constant trade-offs of advantages and disadvantages, and more - are quite likely to be universal. Zoologist Kershenbaum draws on our own world's prehistory and other sources to offer educated guesses on what we might find if we ever manage to glimpse life on another world.
Review
Drawing on what we understand of evolution and adaptation from the first living microbes to the current Anthropocene age, plus
several other disciplines such as mathematics, linguistics, studies of animal intelligence and communication methods, probability and
"game theory" behaviors, and more, author Kershenbaum offers compelling arguments that, while we of course can't conjecture specifics
of alien life, we can make some very educated guesses about what such life might look like. The idea that there is other life in the
universe (microbial at the very least) appears more and more likely, even if interstellar civilizations (so far) have yet to make an
appearance on our telescopes. Even though we only have one known example of a living biosphere (our own), we can make some general
educated guesses based on what we have learned - knowledge that is still expanding and being rewritten, particularly in areas such as
animal intelligence. Much of life is about solving problems, even if that problem is as basic as acquiring energy for survival or
moving toward a nutrient source (or away from a threat)... the sort of problems that any life form is going to encounter, be it on
Earth or elsewhere.
From the start, he admits that some terms he uses - even the term "animal", when there's no way to even know if alien biospheres would
have any distinctions like what we think of as animals, plants, or fungi - are terms of convenience for the thought experiments in the
book. From there, he makes convincing arguments that several of the things we find in Earth evolution are more likely than not to have
analogues elsewhere, such as methods of locomotion or sound as an ideal method of intra/interspecies communication or the development
of certain social dynamics and strategies. Others, however, are likely to be unexpected or surprising, especially in areas where life
on Earth has developed numerous strategies and no one has come out a clear winner (such as the various ways Earth life forms
reproduce). Later chapters speculate on artificial life or tailored evolution, and whether or not immortality is a feasible goal even
for a superintelligent species. At more than one point, he delves into the thorny issues of what constitutes intelligence, and what
constitutes "human" or "person" - concepts that most of us think we know, but which are very difficult to definitively quantify,
especially if we were ever to be faced with making such calls in the faces (or equivalents) of actual non-Earth entities. In numerous
places, he acknowledges the speculations of sci-fi creators without belittling the genre or sneering at their creations (even when
they're biologically unlikely or were created for allegorical purposes). Throughout are notes on other works for further reading on a
wide variety of topics covered. The whole makes for a fascinating exploration of an interesting topic. In considering what might
evolve on alien worlds, it explains much about how life evolves and behaves on our own world, and why.