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DanArmak comments on Astrobiology, Astronomy, and the Fermi Paradox II: Space & Time Revisited - Less Wrong Discussion

23 Post author: CellBioGuy 10 March 2016 05:19AM

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Comment author: DanArmak 13 March 2016 11:58:35AM 0 points [-]

Wouldn't mediocrity imply intelligence evolving many times in the Earth's past, which would imply a Great Filter in our near future? See also my other comment.

Comment author: jacob_cannell 13 March 2016 06:10:16PM *  2 points [-]

Depends on what you mean by 'intelligence'.

If you mean tech/culture/language capable, well it isn't surprising that has only happened once, because it is so recent, and the first tech species tends to takeover the planet and preclude others.

If you mean something more like "near human problem solving capability", then that has evolved robustly in multiple separate vertebrate lineages: - corvids, primates, cetaceans, proboscids. It also evolved in an invertebrate lineage (octopi) with a very different brain plan. I think that qualifies as extremely robust, and it suggests that evolution of culturual intelligence is probably inevitable, given enough time/energy/etc.