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{{trope}}
[[File:
A common subtrope of [[Hollywood Evolution]] that commonly shows up along with [[Evolutionary Levels]], evolution is depicted as, or believed by a character to be, being directed toward a goal, most commonly [[Ascend to
▲A common subtrope of [[Hollywood Evolution]] that commonly shows up along with [[Evolutionary Levels]], evolution is depicted as, or believed by a character to be, being directed toward a goal, most commonly [[Ascend to A Higher Plane of Existence|ascension]] or superpowered or [[Human Alien|humanoid]], rather than toward whatever is best adapted to the environment. Generally, things being described as "more evolved" is a very good indicator this trope is present.
In most cases, humanoids and/or some other form of sapient creature is considered to be the goal if superpowers or energy beings aren't part of [[The Verse]] the trope is occurring in. In many cases, the creature is described as being in specific [[Evolutionary Levels|stages or levels]] of evolution.
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A common view of the [[Evilutionary Biologist]], particularly when they claim that something is holding back evolution from marching forward. When this is done by [[Power Copying]] it's probably [[Lego Genetics]]. [[Lamarck Was Right]] is something that might also show up.
In actual evolutionary theory, change simply happens because those organisms that happen to be well suited to the momentary circumstances of their life have more
See [[Ultimate Lifeform]] for the usual end point.
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Digimon Tamers]]'': Advancement in the traditional evolutionary sense and digivolution are seen as the goal of the Sovereign Zhuqiaomon, his Devas and Impmon.
* ''[[
* ''[[Hunter X Hunter]]'': The chimera ant queen transfers the "most worthy" DNA of whatever she eats to her progeny, resulting in every batch of eggs giving more powerful (and human-like, since humans are ''obviously'' the best food) ants than the last, culminating in the King being the supreme being.
* ''[[Elfen Lied]]'': The Diclonius, maybe. {{spoiler|The conspicuously nameless government agency claims they're our evolutionary superiors, genetically programmed to take over the earth in cold-hearted genocide. The protagonists quickly find out that, at least, they're not cold-hearted at all.}} So it's embraced by some characters.
* ''[[
* ''[[Stardust Memories]]'': One theory is that evolutionary levels are contagious on a mass
==
* [[Marvel Comics]]:
** ''[[X
** '''[[Planet Eater|Galactus]]''' is, [[Depending
** '''[[Evilutionary Biologist|High Evolutionary]]''', a man who has made a career of accelerating the evolution of various species — which, naturally, all happen to be anthropomorphic afterwards.
*** At one point, a ragtag group of Avengers goes in to bust up the High Evolutionary to stop him from being... evil or something. The climax involves the villain and an Avenger both hyper-evolving into major godhood and right out of this realm. The kicker was the Avenger was Hercules, who already ''was'' a [[Physical God]].
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*** This is trumped by him fighting Hulk [[It Makes Sense in Context|so Hulk would kill him]], when he changed the "evolutionary levels" of the ''Earth'', converting the ground beneath Hulk into tar (like tarpits, you know, because tarpits are like stone age, man?), then lava, then ''gas''.
*** In ''[[What If]] The Avengers Lost The Evolutionary War?'', all mutant and otherwise empowered superpeople have their powers enhanced in all kinds of ways (Cyclops can now control his blasts and doesn't need a visor; Spiderman grows four extra arms) while ordinary humans (including non-evolved heroes and villains such as Ironman and Doctor Doom) become bigbrained superintelligent psychics.
* The "Superman of the future" (100,000 years in the future) in Action Comics #256, [https://web.archive.org/web/20130829045547/http://superdickery.com/images/stories/science/vac_u_jack.jpg as seen on Superdickery]. Note that this is also a reference to the Ultra-Humanite, the earliest comic supervillain, more recognizable as having evolved into a large brained ''albino gorilla'' after [[Lex Luthor]] accidentally stole [[Bald of Evil|his look]].
== Film ==
* ''[[Starship Troopers (
{{quote|
▲* ''[[Starship Troopers (Film)|Starship Troopers]]'': The biology teacher in the beginning thought the [[Playing With a Trope|Bugs were more evolved than humans]].
▲{{quote| "We humans like to ''think'' we are nature's finest achievement, but I'm afraid that just isn't ''true''."}}
* In the 1986 film version of ''[[The Fly]]'', the afflicted remarks "I seem to be stricken by a disease with a purpose, wouldn't you say?"
* ''[[Mission to Mars]]'' heavily implies that the life that was seeded on Earth by the Martians was intended to go through the exact path that we saw in our history, complete with the destruction of the dinosaurs, the Ice Ages, and the ascent of humankind, complete with genes that are able to activate the technology that was sealed inside the Face.
* In ''Evolution'', the nitrogen-based organisms appear to be doing this, as they evolve at hyper-speed to produce plantlike life, then worm-like, then vertebrate-like, then primate-like. Subverted at the end, when
== Literature ==
* ''[[Literature/The Adventures Of The Rat Family|The Adventures Of The Rat Family]]'' by [[Jules Verne]]: There's an explicit hierarchy of life-forms (with rats somewhere around the middle, above invertebrates and fish but below birds and most other mammals), and the aim of every living thing is to evolve into the highest form of life, which is of course Man.
* ''[[The Time Machine]]'', by [[
* ''[[Slan]]'' by [[
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Literature/The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch|The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch]]'' by [[Philip K. Dick]]: Set [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]], the novel features "evolutionary therapy" becoming popular among the rich. It makes your [[My Brain Is Big|cranium large and bubble-like]], and even increases your intelligence, although in rare cases it can backfire and ''de''-evolve you into a monkey-like state. The best part? It works by stimulating the ''gland that controls evolution''.
* One of [[Kurt Vonnegut]]'s short stories tells of astronauts that start to evolve into huge-headed telepathic freaks after being exposed to otherworldly radiation. They're saved from this predicament by their test animals, who have been exposed longer and evolved past them and into energy beings. This trope was nicely averted in his book ''Galápagos''. The evolved humans resemble seals, and natural selection lowers their intelligence to that of animals. It's a bit misanthropic, though.
* ''[[The War Against the Chtorr]]'': It's stated that since Chtorran lifeforms have a billion-year evolutionary head start they have a massive advantage over Earth lifeforms.
* ''[[Tomorrow Town]]'' by [[Kim Newman]]: Parodied, one of the claims made by the futurists who have set up shop in the titular town is that they have evolved beyond their 1970s contemporaries, or '[[Fantastic Racism|yesterday men]]' as they are called. Of course, like most things to do with their "futopia", they're quite, quite mistaken.
* Played with in the fiction portion of ''[[
* Averted in [[David Brin]]'s ''[[Uplift]]'' verse. Most clans believe that a species can't even develop sentience without genetic engineering (the exceptions being the mythical [[Precursors]] and maybe humanity).
== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[
** ''[[Star Trek:
*** Spock explains:
{{quote|
** ''[[Star Trek:
** A later ''[[Star Trek:
** ''[[Star Trek
** ''[[Star Trek
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'':
** In [[Doctor Who/Recap/S1
** In "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S12
** "[[Doctor Who
* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'': All sentient species apparently evolve "towards" ascension. Just before evolutionary ascension, people will have all kinds of [[Psychic Powers]], such as mind-reading, telepathy, healing powers and some kind of super-intelligence.
* ''[[Space: 1999]]'': The show features one of the oddest theories of evolution: ''everyone'' is evolving, and will eventually become perfect (apparently ignoring that pesky old mortality). Even worse, there is a mirror universe where evolution works backwards, and people gradually turn into piles of primordial soup, and traveling to this dimension will cause you to start evolving backwards as well.
* ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'': In keeping with its nature, the show thoroughly mocked the "evolution is improvement" idea with several episodes featuring the super brain-powered Observers. A race so evolved that we "are as amoeba" to them, they have evolved beyond bodies (which still have to carry their brains around in their hands) and communicate only with their minds (by using the mouths on the bodies they've evolved beyond).
{{quote|
'''Observer:''' Convenient? Why, our brains are fully functional from our bodies for up to fifty yards. }}
** Also referenced in the final host segment of the last episode of the Comedy Central years (a ''2001'' parody), when the SOL crew evolves into energy. They decide to regain their bodily forms at the beginning of the first episode of the Sci-Fi Channel years.
* ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'': [[Insufferable Genius|Sheldon]] [[
** Explicitly shown in one episode when Sheldon states Amy's science (neurobiology) is basically the same as Bernadette's (microbiology):
{{quote|
'''Amy:''' I'll make it simple for you. I study the brain, the organ responsible for Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Bernadette studies yeast, the organism responsible for Michelob Lite. }}
* ''[[
* ''[[Babylon
== Tabletop Games ==
* In the ''[[Magic:
* ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'': "Pages from the Mages" [[Played With]] this. The spell "Evolve" changes a normal animal into an intelligent and more or less human-like form. [[Don't Explain the Joke|The punchline]] is that glorified name aside, the spell just permanently transforms the target halfway to its caster (presumed to be a human smart enough to use a 8-level spell), using his own blood sample(!) as a component.
== Video Games ==
* In ''[[EVO Search for Eden]]'', this is both the object of the game and one of its central mechanics.
** Though, to be fair, life on EVO's planet was specifically created to evolve this way, as to sire a proper mate for Gaia, who is humanoid.
* ''[[Sid
* ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'': {{spoiler|Alfimi}} was created to be the "apex of human evolution".
* ''[[Star Ocean:
* ''[[Fire Emblem]]'': It's theorized the Zunanma were subconsciously evolving to be more like their "gods". The gods thought this was bad but the only solutions they could think of were abandonment or annihilation and Zunanma didn't like either.
* ''[[Wild
* ''[[Marathon
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[
* ''[[The Simpsons (
* ''[[
* ''[[The Spectacular Spider
* ''[[Ben 10: Ultimate Alien]]'': The titular [[Super Mode|Ultimate Forms]]. The 'fast' part is at least justified in that the entire series revolves around a piece of [[Imported Alien Phlebotinum]] that can spontaneously rewrite a person's DNA. [[Word of God]] claims that the Ultimate forms are actually the ''projected'' evolution of a species based off of a simulated planet-wide civil war lasting millions of years.
== Real Life ==
* Averted. As far as the experts can tell, the "purpose" of evolution is to adapt the organism to its surroundings. And since the environment is ever-changing, the parameters of this goal change every so often, not having any real end to it. As to whether this (or for that matter, existence itself) could go on forever is a question best left to cosmology, metaphysics, or religion.
* According to Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a Catholic priest, scientist and philosopher, all organic and inorganic evolution is driven by two drives, to differentiate and to unify, both of which lead to the ultimate unity with God.
* [[Transhumanism]] recognizes the non-directed nature of evolution, and attempts to take things into our own hands.
* Selective breeding or animal husbandry. Human attempts at breeding 'better' animals is pretty much the same, but replace 'natural selection' with 'artificial selection'. After all, what better way to promote the survival of your own species by developing traits that one of the most successful species on the planet finds useful, and piggy-backing your own survival to theirs?
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Hollywood Science]]▼
[[Category:Artistic License Biology]]
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