Tongue in cheek maybe. But I've thought before how being 'useful' to the dominant species on the planet [whether that means tasting nice or just being a cute fu

Tongue in cheek maybe. But I've thought before how being 'useful' to the dominant species on the planet [whether that means tasting nice or just being a cute furry companion] could be perceived as a legitimate and highly efficient evolutionary strategy, without all the hard work of actually 'evolving'. I think it's inevitable that, when the human race does start colonising other worlds [however far off in the distant future] we'll take our cats and dogs etc. with us. Those creatures will effectively have secured the benefits of all our centuries of technological advances and [with us] escaped this "all eggs in one fragile planetary basket" trap, without even having had to go so far as experimentally banging a few rocks together to see how things might develop from there. [Mind you, with the advent of lab grown meat, it might turn out that the dogs, cats, etc played a better hand than the chickens, cows, sheep, pigs, etc did. Being cute is more likely to get you a lift off-planet in the distant future, than being delicious]