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Human also occur in the earliest likely epoch of the universe: * We have, astronomically speaking, just entered the epoch where the universe can support life.

Human also occur in the earliest likely epoch of the universe: * We have, astronomically speaking, just entered the epoch where the universe can support life. We have the required abundance of elements and conditions that give rise to life (stellar nucleosynthesis). * Intelligence is an incredibly strange thing to evolve. Evolution is a gradient (the evolutionary whitening of the polar bear is probably the best example of this). There is no gradient to move down towards intelligence. You have it or you don't; you are reactive, instinctual, or intellectual. * Intelligent life has also been demonstrated to be unbelievably improbable. With nature as the best laboratory, out of all the species that have ever evolved, only one on Earth evolved intelligence. In layman terms, we are likely the "ancients," or rather we might be, as we could simply go extinct.

mettamage 8y ago
> * Intelligent life has also been demonstrated to be unbelievably improbable. With nature as the best laboratory, out of all the species that have ever evolved, only one on Earth evolved intelligence. I wonder whether this is actually true. Imagine the human society being transported to dolphin or shark bodies (they'd spawn there). Assume the following: food is not an issue in the short term and we retain our knowledge and we have quite a good control over our new bodies and can do what sharks or dolphins normally do. Even with these advantages, could we recreate what we made on land?
- jonathankoren 8y ago
  No. Dolphins don’t have thumbs, and fire is a lot more problematical underwater.
- zamalek 8y ago
  Good point. I would say that the defining feature of human intelligence is immediate and self-directed teaching. House training a dog takes many weeks and many rewards. Stopping smoking is a decision that a human makes and can immediately put into practice. Using sharks and dolphins as an example, both would learn to avoid fishing nets and communicate that danger (which is not unique to humans), remember it (which is) to each other and their offspring (again, unique to humans). What's not done is seemingly more important than what is, because beating opposable thumbs is pretty hard (as you've pointed out).
paxys 8y ago
> There is no gradient to move down towards intelligence. You have it or you don't; you are reactive, instinctual, or intellectual Disagree with this. You can compare the intelligence of various animals (humans, chimpanzees, dolphins, crows etc.) and see that there is a gradual scale rather than a binary (ternary?) switch.
adrianN 8y ago
Astronomical epochs are pretty long. While it's unlikely that extraterrestrial life has arisen billions of years before life on Earth, civilizations that are thousands or millions of years older than us should be as common as intelligent life in general. For example intelligent reptiles are not unthinkable, and their order had a hefty head start on mammals.

mettamage 8y ago

> * Intelligent life has also been demonstrated to be unbelievably improbable. With nature as the best laboratory, out of all the species that have ever evolved, only one on Earth evolved intelligence. I wonder whether this is actually true. Imagine the human society being transported to dolphin or shark bodies (they'd spawn there). Assume the following: food is not an issue in the short term and we retain our knowledge and we have quite a good control over our new bodies and can do what sharks or dolphins normally do. Even with these advantages, could we recreate what we made on land?

jonathankoren 8y ago
No. Dolphins don’t have thumbs, and fire is a lot more problematical underwater.
zamalek 8y ago
Good point. I would say that the defining feature of human intelligence is immediate and self-directed teaching. House training a dog takes many weeks and many rewards. Stopping smoking is a decision that a human makes and can immediately put into practice. Using sharks and dolphins as an example, both would learn to avoid fishing nets and communicate that danger (which is not unique to humans), remember it (which is) to each other and their offspring (again, unique to humans). What's not done is seemingly more important than what is, because beating opposable thumbs is pretty hard (as you've pointed out).

paxys 8y ago

> There is no gradient to move down towards intelligence. You have it or you don't; you are reactive, instinctual, or intellectual Disagree with this. You can compare the intelligence of various animals (humans, chimpanzees, dolphins, crows etc.) and see that there is a gradual scale rather than a binary (ternary?) switch.

adrianN 8y ago

Astronomical epochs are pretty long. While it's unlikely that extraterrestrial life has arisen billions of years before life on Earth, civilizations that are thousands or millions of years older than us should be as common as intelligent life in general. For example intelligent reptiles are not unthinkable, and their order had a hefty head start on mammals.