RE: Odds of intelligent life occuring?
September 19, 2017 at 2:46 pm
(This post was last modified: September 19, 2017 at 2:47 pm by Whateverist.)
I suspect that the formation of life under the right circumstances is probably just about as certain as the formation of rust under its necessary conditions. Naturally occurring disparities in the cognitive ability of species to interpret and respond to what is happening in its environment, would always result in the selection of the fittest.
I think the jump in intelligence which interests us most is that which allows an organism to adapt to its environment through radically modifying its own behavior on an individual basis. That may not be inevitable. Here on earth we have colony animals whose success is predicated on the behavior of the individual being subsumed by the requirements of the colony. Varying strategies can win the day (and the niche). Our own style of success seems special to us because it is so familiar and, lets face it, we have a stake in the outcome. But there is no objective scale of intelligence with places our way of doing it at the top.
I think the jump in intelligence which interests us most is that which allows an organism to adapt to its environment through radically modifying its own behavior on an individual basis. That may not be inevitable. Here on earth we have colony animals whose success is predicated on the behavior of the individual being subsumed by the requirements of the colony. Varying strategies can win the day (and the niche). Our own style of success seems special to us because it is so familiar and, lets face it, we have a stake in the outcome. But there is no objective scale of intelligence with places our way of doing it at the top.
