You're not really following me. If it's no more contemplative than a human, it's probably no more intelligent than a human. If it's no more intelligent than a

You're not really following me. If it's no more contemplative than a human, it's probably no more intelligent than a human. If it's no more intelligent than a human then it's not going to take over the world and fill it with paperclips. Something capable of conquering the world or otherwise totally remaking reality in its image would by definition be something of vastly superior intelligence to ours. I find it hard to believe that this being wouldn't also be superior at self-reflection, since the two seem at least related. If intelligence and self-awareness are unrelated phenomena, we have bigger problems. You could put that on a list of possible very depressing answers to the Fermi paradox: "the universe is full of non-sentient super-intelligences that are busy converting their planets' masses into rubber dog poop."