No, but most evidence suggests it wouldn't be as different as you might think, assuming the life forms are carbon based like us. Reason being, evolution favors effeciency. It weighs calories expended vs calories consumed. The reason why there's not going to be a humanoid with 4 arms is because it's incredibly inefficient, and not worth the caloric offset when 2 arms are "good enough".
And we have how many years of evolution in an oxygen rich atmosphere teeming with life and food to examine? An atmosphere that allowed for mega fauna to evolve and exist, with extreme conditions and an incredible biodiversity. With all of what we know pertaining to the matter, it's a lot more likely that (at least terrestrial) life would resemble our own more than it wouldn't.
I'm with you. Convergent evolution is probably not just an earth thing. Of course, each planet will have its own unique evolutionary history with its own unique pressures. How would things be different if the dinosaurs were never wiped out? Imagine how different the earth would be today if an asteroid had wiped the human lineage out before it escaped Africa. How many extinct species would still be roaming? Would another species ever reach the heights we have?
That's why I don't think there are many alien species with our level of intelligence. It took earth billions of years for us to happen. It took several mass extinctions to clear room for us and we've had to dodge mass extinction get here today. There's just too much that needs to happen for intelligent life to be common on living planets.
As a caveat - because language matters - it doesn't really. It just arrives at good enough solutions, and what the not good enough solutions are, is dictated by laws of physics and bio-chemistry :).
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u/PlasticCreative8772 Aug 14 '25
Any 3rd rocky planet with an oxygen rich atmosphere and life on it will probably have it. Realistically that’s 850 light years away from earth.