Ehh, intelligence/nervous systems aren't the hard part. It's development of the eukaryotic cell that's extremely chance. Microbial life in no way entails highe

Ehh, intelligence/nervous systems aren't the hard part. It's development of the eukaryotic cell that's extremely chance. Microbial life in no way entails higher life. It's only by the insanely chance event of the eurkaryotic cell emerging that sophisticated multicellular life became possible on earth. Even if life is common in the universe, sophisticated multicellular life is extremely rare. The selective pressures on bacterial life favors small size and rapid reproduction, jettisoning any unnecessary genetic material. Mitochondrial ancestors relieved those pressures in a couple ways. Once the eukaryotic cell developed, multicellularity has evolved several times. All the cool things (multicellularity, eyes, flight) have evolved independently a bunch of times, and the eukaryote has happened only fucking once. Here's a longer explanation: http://ronbarak.tumblr.com/post/25996121029/life-is-it-inevitable-or-just-a-fluke-by-nick http://ronbarak.tumblr.com/post/25996121029/life-is-it-inevi...