evolution

is teleological, seeded as it is with inevitabilities... in convergence we see that despite the universe of possibilities, the number of destinations it takes is a vestigially minuscule fraction of the theoretical possibilities.

In teleological language similar to Nagel's, but restricted to biology, Conway Morris writes (Life's Solution, p. 66): 'Everything we know about biology argues that it is seeded with inevitabilities... in principle, there is an incomprehensibly enormous universe of possibilities, but in reality the number of destinations . . . is a vestigially minuscule fraction of the theoretical possibilities that can never be visited not because the journey would never be made, but because the journey would never be possible in the Universe we happen to inhabit.' Such inevitabilities could be treated as a consequence of natural teleological laws. Such laws would sharply limit the number of trajectories that the evolutionary process may

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