In addition to the *Wonderful Life* reference, Gould uses a similar
line of thought in a special issue of Scientific American (Oct. '94).
Stephen Jay Gould contributes an essay on "The evolution of life
on the Earth".
" . . . the Darwinian revolution remains woefully incomplete
because, even though thinking humanity accepts the fact of
evolution, most of us are still unwilling to abandon the
comforting view that evolution means (or at least embodies a
central principle of) progress defined to render the appearance
of something like human consciousness either virtually inevitable
or at least predictable. The pedestal is not smashed until we
abandon progress or complexification as a central principle and
come to entertain the strong possibility that *H. sapiens* is but
a tiny, late-arising twig on life's enormously arborescent bush -
a small bud that would almost surely not appear a second time
if we could replant the bush from seed and let it grow again."
Best wishes,
*** From David J. Tyler, CDT Department, Hollings Faculty,
Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.
Telephone: 0161-247-2636 ***