We share 60% of our DNA with bananas, but we are clearly not 60% banana.
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I didn’t scroll through a ton of responses, but one analogy I didn’t see was video games.
Many game developers use the same game engine to build their games, but it’s the smaller intricacies and layers on top that make them differ. For example, Unreal Engine has been used for games such as Ave Combat, but also for Borderlands. They share a lot of underlying “DNA” that all games need, but you may never guess that based on what you actually see.
Disclaimer: For any game devs, I am NOT a game dev, so I’m not familiar with the intricacies of making a game, just that few games start “from scratch” with proprietary game engines.
You exist on the same planet as everything else. There is a lot of overlap in the forces and chemicals you experience. You have lots of proteins, including enzymes, which to help you survive on that planet, so it makes sense that other organisms will have the same/similar proteins to some extent. These similar proteins will be coded for by similar DNA. If it was too different then the protein may not work and the organism would possibly die.
As such, you may share the similar DNA to other organisms. The closer you are (generally) the closer the similarity should be.
It means you are from the same planet and the same “life-cycle” of the planet with a thread of continuity from the first time life emerged on earth.
We probably share around 65% of our DNA with dinosaurs in general.
Butif life evolved entirely separately on another planet it might have taken different basic pathways and we might not share any DNA with such life. If in fact such life forms had “DNA”.
If we do find aliens and if we share DNA that would be extremely suspicious. That might strongly imply thay life on earth might have been seeded from space.
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