Are Humans destined to evolve into crabs?

[kennychaffin]

Homo crustaceous
‘Everything becomes crab’ is more than an absurd meme. The crab is a deep symbol of our devil’s bargain with technology


No one paid much attention when an obscure biology journal published an article in 2017 about ‘the evolutionary processes which led to a crab-like habitus’. In this review of crustacean taxonomy, three scientists from a German university – Jonas Keiler, Christian S Wirkner and Stefan Richter – analysed studies dating back to the 1820s and noted that ‘crabs’ were not one kind of animal but instead had arisen from five different evolutionary lineages. That is, creatures such as hermit crabs, squat lobsters and other ‘crab-like representatives’ did not evolve from the same ancestor: they independently developed crabby qualities. To explain this fairly banal case of convergent evolution, the three researchers picked a century-old noun, ‘carcinisation’, and concluded that ‘there is no reason to assume that “evolutionary tendencies” or any such vague concept played a role.’


But, within three years, a wave of coverage had taken those cautious claims and turned them hyperbolic.

.....

Are humans destined to evolve into crabs? | Aeon Essays

‘Everything becomes crab’ is more than an absurd meme. The crab is a deep symbol of our devil’s bargain with technology

aeon.co

 

[Hous1988]

The concept of a volume shader benchmark actually comes to mind when thinking about convergence like this, just as crabs evolved similar forms independently, volumetric rendering relies on layering and depth calculations that converge visually to create a consistent, immersive effect. It’s fascinating how patterns emerge repeatedly, whether in biology or in complex digital systems.
Crabs evolving multiple times across lineages really highlights how certain shapes or solutions just “work” in nature, much like optimized rendering techniques in graphics that consistently produce the best visual results.