Odds of intelligent life occuring?

[Aroura]

Chimpanzees and apes currently use tools AND pass that knowledge down to younger generations. Scientists say some groups of chimps have entered the stone age.

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150818-...-stone-age

Yes, they are primates, but they are not our ancestors. This would be yet another branch developing intelligence even limited by our human definitions.

And as others have said, cetaceans pass language and behavior on through active teaching.

I know it's sci-fi, but Did some of you guys miss the point behind Star Trek 4, or even Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy?

[ignoramus]

Guys don't you think it's a bit of a coincidence that out of millions of species, the one who became intelligent was the species who was the most physically capable of fulfilling the intellectual potential to its maximum possible.
Why couldn't a snake get the mutation? Or a wombat? What a waste that would be?
I don't think it's a coincidence. I think we were chosen.

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A host invaded us, controls us via our subconscious. This host manifests itself as our consciousness. It's mechanics work at the quantum level. Wake up people! Before it's too late! nurse! NURSE!!!!!

(I'm only half joking! It would tie up a lot of things nicely)

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[Jehanne]

As intelligence is a wonderful aide to survival, how could it not evolve in a world governed by natural selection, which must occur wherever there is life?

But why only 1?
I'd love nothing more than to ask my cat why he bites the fuck out of me when he's happy?

I think it's just pot luck. Mutations at the right time on the right species. Just a mutation. That's our claim to fame. And we took advantage of it naturally.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.  Besides, there is some evidence of ET:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal

It hasn't been replicated, but if it was just a beacon, that would be perfectly understandable.  And, we haven't been looking continuously for it since it was first detected.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

But why only 1?
I'd love nothing more than to ask my cat why he bites the fuck out of me when he's happy?

I think it's just pot luck. Mutations at the right time on the right species. Just a mutation. That's our claim to fame. And we took advantage of it naturally.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.  Besides, there is some evidence of ET:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal

It hasn't been replicated, but if it was just a beacon, that would be perfectly understandable.  And, we haven't been looking continuously for it since it was first detected.

There's no reason to believe the "WOW" signal came from another intelligence somewhere out there.

[bennyboy]

Guys don't you think it's a bit of a coincidence that out of millions of species, the one who became intelligent was the species who was the most physically capable of fulfilling the intellectual potential to its maximum possible.
Why couldn't a snake get the mutation? Or a wombat? What a waste that would be?
I don't think it's a coincidence. I think we were chosen.

---

A host invaded us, controls us via our subconscious. This host manifests itself as our consciousness.  It's mechanics work at the quantum level. Wake up people! Before it's too late! nurse! NURSE!!!!!

(I'm only half joking! It would tie up a lot of things nicely)

---

Intelligence isn't binary.  It's linear.

[Anomalocaris]

Guys don't you think it's a bit of a coincidence that out of millions of species, the one who became intelligent was the species who was the most physically capable of fulfilling the intellectual potential to its maximum possible.

Isn't it also coincidence that the only creature ever to evolve a tyraanasurus skull would also happen to be the specie whose neck vertebrate fits most perfectly into the socket at the back of that skull?

[Jehanne]

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.  Besides, there is some evidence of ET:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal

It hasn't been replicated, but if it was just a beacon, that would be perfectly understandable.  And, we haven't been looking continuously for it since it was first detected.

There's no reason to believe the "WOW" signal came from another intelligence somewhere out there.

Did you read the article?

Ehman has said: "We should have seen it again when we looked for it 50 times. Something suggests it was an Earth-sourced signal that simply got reflected off a piece of space debris."[14] He later recanted his skepticism somewhat, after further research showed an Earth-borne signal to be very unlikely, given the requirements of a space-borne reflector being bound to certain unrealistic requirements to sufficiently explain the signal.[7] Also, it is problematic to propose that the 1420 MHz signal originated from Earth since this is within a protected spectrum: a bandwidth reserved for astronomical purposes in which terrestrial transmitters are forbidden to transmit.[15][16] In a 1997 paper, Ehman resists "drawing vast conclusions from half-vast data"—acknowledging the possibility that the source may have been military or otherwise a product of Earth-bound humans.[17]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signa...27s_origin

[Whateverist]

For the most part the discussion here seems to assume that intelligence as it is exercised by our species is at the top of an intelligence continuum at least here on our planet in an unqualifiedly objective sense. I wonder what the criteria are that make that placement tempting and to what degree it merely reflects the fact that it is our species doing grading.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

There's no reason to believe the "WOW" signal came from another intelligence somewhere out there.

Did you read the article?

Ehman has said: "We should have seen it again when we looked for it 50 times. Something suggests it was an Earth-sourced signal that simply got reflected off a piece of space debris."[14] He later recanted his skepticism somewhat, after further research showed an Earth-borne signal to be very unlikely, given the requirements of a space-borne reflector being bound to certain unrealistic requirements to sufficiently explain the signal.[7] Also, it is problematic to propose that the 1420 MHz signal originated from Earth since this is within a protected spectrum: a bandwidth reserved for astronomical purposes in which terrestrial transmitters are forbidden to transmit.[15][16] In a 1997 paper, Ehman resists "drawing vast conclusions from half-vast data"—acknowledging the possibility that the source may have been military or otherwise a product of Earth-bound humans.[17]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signa...27s_origin

I'm familiar with the WOW signal, I was an adult when it came through. BFD.

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For the most part the discussion here seems to assume that intelligence as it is exercised by our species is at the top of an intelligence continuum at least here on our planet in an unqualifiedly objective sense.  I wonder what the criteria are that make that placement tempting and to what degree it merely reflects the fact that it is our species doing grading.

Who did that, please?

[Jehanne]

Did you read the article?


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signa...27s_origin

I'm familiar with the WOW signal, I was an adult when it came through. BFD.

It is a big deal; how could it not be?  If it was some sort of narrow beacon, that would explain why it was observed in one horn and not the other.  It would also explain why it was centered exactly on the hydrogen line of the EM, which is where one would expect ET to be transmitting any sort of message or at least carrier.