Fiction:Godspawn theory

Godspawn theory (Apalose: suhrsegh siuns) is a field of study that attempts to explain widespread similarities between unrelated living organisms throughout the First Gigaquadrant through -based means. "Godspawn" life can be contrasted with "truly alien" life, which are organisms from those rare instances of biospheres that are unaltered by the underlying cause of these similarities.

The name "godspawn" comes from the common religious belief of all life ultimately being created by a single deity, which has been viewed as one possible explanation as to how all life in the universe was so similar. However, it is widely regarded as a poor English translation of surhsegh, not for technical inaccuracy (although "god's eggs" is more precise) but because it is perceived as carrying an insulting or demeaning connotation that the Apalose original lacks.

Panspermia
Philosophers and scientists of most sapient species engage in speculation that life on their homeworld originated from elsewhere, even long before they become aware of the existence of alien life. These early ideas fall under the banner of panspermia, and in many cases turn out to be accurate accounts of the origins of their homeworlds' biospheres. These theories become boosted upon discovering alien life, after which real similarities between the biochemistries and physiologies of organisms on many different planets are noted by astrobiologists.

In several cases, conclusive evidence of a common cause to these similarities is discovered. For example, the of the  became aware of their genetic relationships over time, while the inhabitants of the  came to accept that the Xyanxes were responsible for seeding most of their worlds with "Spodian" life. In particular, the developed a sort of obsession with finding "truly alien" life under the psychic influence of Emperor Ghelax, which led to them conducting a disproportionate amount of research into the topic. The Girdo Empire found a few anomalies in their home galaxy, such as the s, Grox and Conqrix, which seemed to have features of Spodian life but did not fit entirely. It was upon exploring the and finding that these species were not native to Girdo that they realised that their concept of Spodian life was but one aspect of a larger phenomenon of "godspawn" biota.

Also in the Milky Way, the s held a belief in, whereby primordial life at the dawn of the universe collapsed a quantum superposition to make the universe a life-friendly place. In the original conception of Cosmospawn, all life was descended from the Cosmospawn, but much like the Girdo Empire, they Cephalodians soon discovered that this could not be the case, for many planets in the Milky Way had experienced independent abiogenesis events.

Observations
Godspawn organisms share many key physical characteristics. One of the principles of godspawn theory is that these features are statistically improbable to have evolved so many times independently, since there are so many other forms of life that are equally possible. These alternative forms of life are not merely theoretical: several truly alien biotae are known to exist, but they do so in far fewer numbers than the equivalent godspawn.

The most conclusive way of determining whether a creature is godspawn is on a microscopic scale. Most carbon-based godspawn cells have a similar structure, with eukaryotic ones in particular including a nucleus, mitochondria, ribosomes, endoplasmic reticulum, and other organelles, although they vary in appearance and location. Furthermore, they tend to make use of DNA and/or RNA. Even more strangely, there are many non-carbon-based godspawn that have similar structures and nucleic acid-like molecules, although they are based on alternative elements to carbon.

Other, large-scale features are also common amongst godspawn life, from the way that tissues are formed and arranged to various details and structures of creatures' external anatomy, all of which are remarkably common across the universe.

Another anomaly that godspawn theory attempts to explain is that life is more common that it should be. Although exact figures are only estimates, the least extreme results say that three times as many sapient species have evolved than should have naturally occurred, and it should also be noted that godspawn biospheres outnumber truly alien biospheres by more than a hundred to one.

Explanations
The reason why godspawn life is so common in the universe is debatable, and no clear answers have emerged. Most researchers in the field believe that they are the result of or  ("godraces", hence the theory's name) somehow tampering with nature.

Panspermia, and other forms of direct transferal of organisms, is known to have occured throughout the universe, but it is rejected as being the sole cause of all godspawn life for several reasons. Most damning is that there are also many planets which have records of abiogenesis in the fossil record. Furthermore, the existence of non-carbon-based life with godspawn features would require the primoridial ancestors of such organisms to have been designed alike to carbon-based ones, which is widely considered to be an inefficient means of biogenesis.

Trivia

 * The idea that phyiological similarities between organisms on different planets can be explained by alien interference in the distant past originates in other sci-fi, such as the origin of humanoids in Star Trek. Ghelae applied this concept to the origin of humanoids in one of his Spore games, with a non-humanoid species - spiritual precursors of the - exterminating all humanoid life they came across.
 * The concept was soon extended from humanoids to all species made using the Creature Editor, which should be thought of as the out-of-universe description of most godspawn life.