3 ms·
I suspect that intelligent-like-us life is vanishingly rare. It’s only happened to one species (maybe a few of our extinct relatives) out of billions of species
by aaronharnly 7y ago
I suspect that intelligent-like-us life is vanishingly rare. It’s only happened to one species (maybe a few of our extinct relatives) out of billions of species on Earth so far. And even we spent most of our history not being space-faring — it doesn’t feel inevitable even given our biology that we would be.
- baja_blast 7y agoand if we were wiped out early on then Earth would most likely continue on how it was for the previous hundred million years with megafauna and life branching out in similar niches it has gone before.
- leetcrew 7y agoidle speculation: maybe there's an uncanny valley type effect where intelligent tool users are inherently hostile towards their near peer species? could explain why our ancestors are extinct but much less capable primates still exist. if true, the number of such species might converge to one over time.
- allovernow 7y agoWell, predisposition to tribalism may be the manifestation of a strong evolutionary pressure against those early hominids who did not eliminate other subspecies with prejudice.