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Well if a planet has a few intelligent species, the expansionist one would dominate the rest. If there is no expansionist species, after a time one will emerge

by seer 2y ago

Well if a planet has a few intelligent species, the expansionist one would dominate the rest. If there is no expansionist species, after a time one will emerge due to mutation over time. Look at humans - there were a bunch of other intelligent species around the time humans came to the scene - we out expanded and outcompeted all them. Now of course this is just a sample of 1. But also seems kind of inevitable. So if mutation and natural selection are the only way for an intelligent life to emerge, it would probably also be expansionist, just by virtue of outcompeting everything else. And thus would naturally want to “explore” for the sake of it - just like humans. Of course there might be other ways to achieve intelligence- like it being developed by other species (AI). But same rule still apply. If there are more than one, eventually the one that wants to expand will expand more than the others that don’t… And even if the species found a way to “change themselves” to make them not give a fuck, by a virtue of change being possible eventually you’ll get expansionist “strain” again.

anonzzzies 2y ago
Or maybe it’s just us humans. We don’t have much experience with other intelligent species, let alone species that are more intelligent than us. Maybe this expansionist thing is a sign of not being civilised at all and stops happening when 500 iq is reached by most (so bell curve middle goes from 100 to 500).
rep_lodsb 2y ago
>And even if the species found a way to “change themselves” to make them not give a fuck, by a virtue of change being possible eventually you’ll get expansionist “strain” again. For such a species, there would likely be no selection pressure towards such a trait. I suspect it's actually the opposite: being less expansionist could have enough benefits that it would become widespread entirely through random mutations. Infinite growth isn't possible, desirable, or even "natural".

by seer 2y ago

anonzzzies 2y ago

Or maybe it’s just us humans. We don’t have much experience with other intelligent species, let alone species that are more intelligent than us. Maybe this expansionist thing is a sign of not being civilised at all and stops happening when 500 iq is reached by most (so bell curve middle goes from 100 to 500).

rep_lodsb 2y ago

>And even if the species found a way to “change themselves” to make them not give a fuck, by a virtue of change being possible eventually you’ll get expansionist “strain” again. For such a species, there would likely be no selection pressure towards such a trait. I suspect it's actually the opposite: being less expansionist could have enough benefits that it would become widespread entirely through random mutations. Infinite growth isn't possible, desirable, or even "natural".