The Brightest Sparks?
By Mark Steer
Bristol University, UK.
“Only two things are infinite, the Universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former” - Albert Einstein.
We are constantly being bombarded with stories of our own species’ sublime idiocy. Entire books are published each year charting the numerous bizarre methods by which we manage to kill, maim and mutilate ourselves. Not to mention that the West once thought it a good idea to sell arms to Saddam Hussein and that the Cheeky Girls reached number one; some poor folk even support Norwich City Football Club.
"there is no reason for extra-terrestrial organisms to be ‘super-intelligent’." |
Yet as far as intelligence goes, humans are probably about as good as it gets. There are no ‘super-intelligent’ aliens out there in the great beyond. However, it is quite possible that there are creatures as sharp as us somewhere in the Universe. In fact it would be quite surprising if there wasn’t any other intelligent life in the billions upon billions of galaxies that surround us. However, just like us, our alien compatriots will occasionally make the galactic equivalents of saying left when they mean right or arriving at the bottle-bank to find that they’ve left all their empties on the drive; every now and then they’ll find their wallet in the oven behind the milk.
Before going any furher I need briefly to define what is meant by ‘super-intelligent’ and introduce one major assumption. ‘Super-intelligence’ is simply the capacity for feats of insight, prediction and mental calculation greatly above and beyond human capabilities. The assumption I make is that, for complex and intelligent life to evolve, conditions on a particular planet must more-or-less resemble those on Earth. By this I mean that the same basic physical laws apply, evolution occurs by similar mechanisms and the physical structure of the environment is roughly similar. We could debate for hours whether this supposition is likely to be true or not, but for argument’s sake stick with me for the time being.
Intelligence has evolved to allow organisms to solve the problems of inhabiting a variable environment. A squirrel, for example, needs to be able to reach inaccessible food sources. To such an end squirrels have evolved a level of intelligence capable of overcoming complex spatial problems, allowing them to outwit my bird-table’s anti-squirrel defences with ease. However, once a species has evolved the mental capacity to be able to alter its own environment to suit its requirements then the need to become more intelligent decreases. Humans are our prime example. Once we had developed the intelligence to be capable of building our own dwellings, cultivating our own food and dealing with the rigours of living in large communal societies, the need to become any more intelligent declined, lessening the pressure of natural selection on our brains. It seems reasonable to assume that, in similar circumstances, the same logic would apply on other worlds; so there is no reason, or mechanism, for extra-terrestrial organisms to be ‘super-intelligent’.
Of course this argument states that human intelligence levels have stayed static over the progression of human society. It could be said that our intellect has come on in leaps and bounds over the past four thousand years; take the great technological advances of the past two hundred years as an example. However, this isn’t a case of an increase of intelligence per se; instead it’s a case of social factors allowing a gradual accumulation of knowledge and learning, leading to great innovation. We only have to look to the wisdom of the ancient Greeks to see there’s been no great progress in basic intelligence for over two thousand years. Read any of Plato’s teachings and it’s clear that his intellectual endeavours are a match for any modern day insights. The same can be said of Confucius, Buddha, Dante and Da Vinci; many of the ideas of the great thinkers throughout history remain as pertinent today as they were when they were written. We haven’t surpassed their intellect at all.
I intend to expand this argument in the future, but hopefully this short article gives you something to think about. And next time you accidentally wander to the shops still wearing your pyjamas, spare a thought for the thousands of other creatures across the Universe suffering similar embarrassments.
Before going any furher I need briefly to define what is meant by ‘super-intelligent’ and introduce one major assumption. ‘Super-intelligence’ is simply the capacity for feats of insight, prediction and mental calculation greatly above and beyond human capabilities. The assumption I make is that, for complex and intelligent life to evolve, conditions on a particular planet must more-or-less resemble those on Earth. By this I mean that the same basic physical laws apply, evolution occurs by similar mechanisms and the physical structure of the environment is roughly similar. We could debate for hours whether this supposition is likely to be true or not, but for argument’s sake stick with me for the time being.
Intelligence has evolved to allow organisms to solve the problems of inhabiting a variable environment. A squirrel, for example, needs to be able to reach inaccessible food sources. To such an end squirrels have evolved a level of intelligence capable of overcoming complex spatial problems, allowing them to outwit my bird-table’s anti-squirrel defences with ease. However, once a species has evolved the mental capacity to be able to alter its own environment to suit its requirements then the need to become more intelligent decreases. Humans are our prime example. Once we had developed the intelligence to be capable of building our own dwellings, cultivating our own food and dealing with the rigours of living in large communal societies, the need to become any more intelligent declined, lessening the pressure of natural selection on our brains. It seems reasonable to assume that, in similar circumstances, the same logic would apply on other worlds; so there is no reason, or mechanism, for extra-terrestrial organisms to be ‘super-intelligent’.
Of course this argument states that human intelligence levels have stayed static over the progression of human society. It could be said that our intellect has come on in leaps and bounds over the past four thousand years; take the great technological advances of the past two hundred years as an example. However, this isn’t a case of an increase of intelligence per se; instead it’s a case of social factors allowing a gradual accumulation of knowledge and learning, leading to great innovation. We only have to look to the wisdom of the ancient Greeks to see there’s been no great progress in basic intelligence for over two thousand years. Read any of Plato’s teachings and it’s clear that his intellectual endeavours are a match for any modern day insights. The same can be said of Confucius, Buddha, Dante and Da Vinci; many of the ideas of the great thinkers throughout history remain as pertinent today as they were when they were written. We haven’t surpassed their intellect at all.
I intend to expand this argument in the future, but hopefully this short article gives you something to think about. And next time you accidentally wander to the shops still wearing your pyjamas, spare a thought for the thousands of other creatures across the Universe suffering similar embarrassments.
Share this
