Parallel processing…

Posted on December 20, 2017 by Clint

WARNING: Very, very minor spoilers for The Last Jedi referenced below. In fact so minor I wouldn’t even bother with this warning except people have been threatening to flay each other alive over revelation of any content and I like having my skin where it is.

So there’s this biological concept known as parallel evolution, which basically boils down to the idea that similar characteristics can develop among species that have no common ancestors, or at least no recent ones. Bats, for example, evolved wings to fly in much the same way birds do. When the ancestors of modern cetaceans gave up on this whole “walking on land” schtick and returned to the ocean, they went back right back to fins. Certain configurations just seem to be gravitated towards as the best solution without any conscious imitation going on.

Similarly, I like to think variations on this happen in fictional circles. I mean nowadays it’s hard to imagine anyone being ignorant enough of Superman to come up with a super-strong flying dude and truthfully maintain they did so without any influence of previous archetypes, but we’re often all too quick to cry “rip off!” even in cases where it’s entirely possible that two similar characters or stories could be created by people who had no knowledge of the other work. Ideas blooming in parallel. After all, even if a bat resembles a bird and a dolphin resembles a shark, there are clear differences when you take a closer look.

So case in point, The Last Jedi debuts a new character named “Rose” who is a non-skinny lady in green utilitarian garb with a toolbelt, a medallion that’s important to her, and technical know-how. Whoa, right?

Except okay, she’s Asian. And more importantly, not particularly sneaky in manner. And…

I mean if you took Rose and combined her with the attitude, ethnicity and mannerisms of Sombra from Overwatch, that’d be getting a lot closer to Zombie Ranch‘s Rosa, but still there’s that idea of parallel evolution. Legally speaking, copyright law says that ideas cannot be copyrighted, only the expressions of those ideas… which is why you can publish comics featuring nigh-invulnerable super-strong guys that fly so long as they don’t stray too close to the Big S. How close is too close? Well, that’s why lawyers and courts exist, and people tend to have much stronger cases if they can prove, for example, that Big Studio A had Script B in their possession for an amount of time before passing on it but then producing Movie C which was suspiciously similar. It’s all very messy and usually ends in the Studio paying the aggrieved party a “shut up and go away” settlement which they might or might not deserve.

But anyhow, although shady rip-offs do happen, I feel that in most cases when someone comes up with a character or concept similar to yours, it’s best to give them the benefit of the doubt, especially when the differences are enough it’s a real stretch to say you would have even inspired them. At a certain point it borders on hubris. And hell, I long ago admitted that Rosa’s character was inspired by Tuco from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, but she’s come quite a ways since then, enough that I’d hesitate to describe her just in that configuration. She’s evolved, in parallel or otherwise.

 

3 thoughts on “Parallel processing…”

  1. oiojes

    One of the interesting things about parallel evolution is how physical constraints shape the nature of the adaptation but the heritage of the organism determines how the adaptation actually happens. Cetaceans are a really good example of this. They did evolve fins that serve the same hydrodynamic purpose as fish. But how they exploit them is quite different.

    Fish swim via a lateral movement. That sort of movement is constrained in land vertebrates– the adaptation to maintaining a quadroped form forces strength in the dorso-ventral axis while reducing strength in the lateral axis. Consequently, when cetaceans went back to the sea, their heritage forced them to use not a lateral movement but a dorsal ventral movement.

    Bats, pterodactyls and birds all exploit aerodynamics to fly. But they all accomplish flight in different ways. All of them are forced by their heritage to use their arms– though birds once had feathered legs apparently. Those three solutions are well discussed here: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/vertebrates/flight/converge.html

    Unfortunately, a lot of SF gets parallel evolotion wrong by saying the result of multiple speces is they become the same or very close relatives. This does not happen. Just because an octopus’ and human eye resemble one another does not mean their eyes are the same. They derive differently. They have different construction. (Human eyes have the retina behind the optic nerve. Octopus have the retina in front of the nerge– better design.) Just because bats and birds fly does not mean they are the same. Just because Vulcans and humans look similar doesn’t mean they should be able to interbreed.

    (In point of fact, a strictly defined term of “species” means they are the *same* species. Not related.)

  2. Christopher

    Personally I think the basic idea of “Lando Calrissian” from EP 5 was split among Rose and DJ.

    I see no similarities between SW Rose and ZR Rosa, so no issue there.

  3. Clint

    @Christopher: Yeah, Rose is exceedingly different as a character, it’s only in superficial appearance or concept that she might bear any resemblance at first glance. You might as well claim William Munny and Ethan Edwards are the same character because both are world-weary guys dressed in cowboy garb.

    @ojones: Very cool stuff. I remember once trying to extrapolate what a race of sentient cephalopods might be like, for example the thought that their language would be entirely visual since my understanding is creatures like cuttlefish perceive colors and subtle variations of colors on a scale we aren’t capable of. I got tripped up on the issue of fire, which has been such an important part of human technological progress, and after that just felt intimidated by the scope of what I was getting myself into since I’m no scientist but didn’t want to just handwave everything.

    It’s funny how Star Trek was commonly portrayed as being on the harder edge of pop culture science fiction. Maybe in comparison to Star Wars, but yeah, didn’t they specify Vulcans as having copper-based blood rather than iron-based all the way back in TOS? I mean that alone sure seems to me like Spock’s half-and-half existence should have been more complicated than just your standard special hugging hookup.

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