**Convergent Evolution** is the term used to describe when similar traits/features start to pop up in creatures that don't share any recent ancestors. It’s sort of like an evolutionary best practices. # Examples of Convergent Evolution ## Biological Evolution ### Thumbs Humans, possums, chameleons all developed thumbs independently. ### Bats & Birds Practically unrelated, biologically - yet I have to go "is that a bird or a bat" on my nightly walks. ### Crabs [Everything turns into a crab](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-do-animals-keep-evolving-into-crabs/) ### Trees Different types of trees come from wildly different backgrounds, apparently. ## Technological Evolution These are probably not "pure" convergent evolution - insofar as these things may be evolving with *intention* to be more similar, but still the concept applies. ### [[JavaScript Frameworks]] [[React]], Svelte, and many other frameworks are become more similar as they evolve. ### [[Notetaking Apps]] / [[PKM]] apps There's block-based notetakers like [[Notion]] and pure text-based notetakers like [[Obsidian]] - but there's a broad swath of in-between tools that are emerging: - heptabase - capacities - scrintal It looks like all of these tools feature: - Notion-like blocks, with types & properties - View types - Whiteboard-like canvases - Document-style views - Calendar views - Kanbans - Tables - AI [[Large Language Models|LLMs]] integration **** # More ## Source - crab example from above linked to source - [Video about the Plant Map](https://youtu.be/ONVpFtiD-fo?si=orD4ptuqvZGRH0i_) ## Related - [[Imitation]]