Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Hi, I have been presented with the following question to write a short opinion based essay on and I'm not sure which side to take. If there is anyone who can post a few points about whatever side they want to take, it would really help me get started. The question is: Do you think that the evolution of what we call "intelligence" must occur on any planet with life, provided that sufficient time unfolds? Why or why not? Answers through email woul be great too! Thanks!
Welcome to sciforums, Krista. Why? we can only use Earth as a guide. With our limited intelligence, we say yes to that model and similar models out there...to say otherwise is to deny our existence...
Welcpme to Sciforums, Krista. I think the first thing to do would be to define what you mean by intelligence. As in where you draw the line to say here starts intelligence. If by intelligence you mean, reaction to external stimuli, planning for events before they happen, tool making, etc. (in otherwords, human intelligence) I would say that the odds do not favor such development. Look at the world today. Most species survive fine without such. Intelligence on such level is restricted to humans and in a stretch maybe apes. A few marine species are reported to have intelligence but without tool making ability the advantages of intelligence is limited. To many factors come into play in the determining of intelligence becoming the top dog. For instance, what if the earth had not had an asteroid event destroying 70-95% of life? Even though man has intelligence on his side chances are slim that he would have survived for very long among the other established species that already existed. It was only because there was “room to expand to and fill a niche” without competition from the existing species that already had existed that allowed man to really get a foothold and expand. Man is poorly equipped to fight on an even footing with most predators and consistently come out the winner. Intelligence is not a necessity to be successful. Look at social insects such as ants, bees, and termites, which have been around a long time and have done well. In looking at such examples there is no guarrenty that life needs intelligence to survive, if it does not need it or the oppurtunity to expand is not there then chances are slim that even if it develops that it will take hold.
This topic is a fun one to contemplate: For instance the reason why we all exist, is just because something occured on this planet that allowed life to be sustainable. Without the right atmosphere, food sources of chemical mixes life on this planet would have been doomed from the start. This pretty much puts forwards the point that life existed without the necessity of intelligence and that intelligence is just the outcome of an evolutionary path unfolding. I came across a whole number of theories that you would have to base in some sort of calculation over "Life existing else where" To start with you have the Carbon dating conundrum, Life might have existed on a platform near a large explosive force that could have split it up into frozen chunks that travelled throughout the universe (I suppose you could say it's like an Eskimo using an iceberg like a raft because a frozen lump of ice containing life, isn't a spaceship but it does bare understanding that even a frozen microbe can spacetravel) If the freezing temperatures are contained, then the life would stay frozen until it thaws in the future. It means that a frozen lump could land on a planet at one point and another lands 100 light years away (after travelling further away from the first lump) That first lump might have stayed in a suspended animation for the time the other lump took to reach its destination, and in that time the planet has acclimatised that lump into spawning life. While the lump furthest away lands on a planet that is already the right temperature to thaw. So although they are 100 light years apart they could grow at the same rate (or one before of the other) I believe that for life to exist there would be a need to similar things that we and the life on this planet requires. although there is always people speaking of "Silicon based lifeforms." I would say that for silicon based life to exist that a carbon based probably built them to begin with and designed them. (funny thing is if our planet came into contact with a bunch of fundamental silicon based life forms that talk of their makers, our populous if primative would then think that we had come from naturally the same source.) Of course this brings me onto somethng else that I think might sound an odd theory but might have some implications on the planets in the universe. We at present are still understanding things like parallels, but we don't take into consideration that although we create a bunch here and that increases the radiation on this planet that such an effect could cause planetry gravity to climb on other planets. (I wish I could term that thought better) Namely if there are other advanced civilizations messing around with parallels, are we going to find that we continually wipe each other out through the lack of understanding of our experiments consequences? This is where intelligence will be proven, and possibly an understanding as to why there is so many un-inhabitable worlds out there.
Multi-verse...Jet Li movie...reality...reality within reality...reality bubbles...all matter and energy is a vibration of strings...mathematics...simulation...30,000 bit of information makes a human...virtual human in a super computer...rights of a virtual human...if you dream that you cheated, did you cheat?...Jimmy Carter and human lust...covet is sin...first sin is pride...so is life....
Tristan, I admit it was thrown together rather fast and with short text. I have learned that long posts get skipped over usually. The example is relative and to the point. It also leaves room for other posters to develop ideas from the post. You are certainly welcome to add. I do not believe intelligence is a necessity to develop because life has taken a foot hold. We have had 5 asteriodal events in the course of earth's history. There is no evidence that human like, reasoning intelligence has played a role in life earlier than the advent of apes and its associated branch of descendants. In light of that it seems like reasoning intelligence is a random mutation that had oppurtunity by luck and timing to gain an established beachhead before becoming endangered by the status quo of already existing life forms. As mentioned before, man is poorly equipped to survive on an even footing with most predators unless man becomes a pack hunting type animal at the beginning. That requires sufficent population to accomplish this. I would hazard the guess that it was touch and go at the start if man would even survive to make a new species much less come to rule the world and be at the top of the food chain.
No, no, hehe. I was talking about the movie "THE ONE" heehe.Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
