Intelligence on Earth Evolved Independently at Least Twice (www.wired.com)
from ooli2@lemm.ee to archaeology@mander.xyz on 15 May 05:59
https://lemm.ee/post/63995907

#archaeology

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finitebanjo@lemmy.world on 15 May 06:31 next collapse

Where are these supposedly intelligent mammals now, then?

chonkyninja@lemmy.world on 15 May 06:37 next collapse

👀 apparently they’re all extinct.

forrgott@lemm.ee on 15 May 07:04 collapse

Is the intelligent mammal in the room with you now?

DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social on 17 May 20:04 collapse

Definitely not in mine

Kyrgizion@lemmy.world on 15 May 06:51 next collapse

Well, that’s one possible great filter down then. If it happened twice on one planet it’s safe to assume that, given similar circumstances, it could happen again, or already has elsewhere.

AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world on 15 May 06:52 next collapse

Any evidence of how far back in their dinosaur lineage the avian DVR originated?

ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world on 15 May 08:10 collapse

Maybe rejecting technology is the highest level of intelligence, grasshopper. 🧘🏼

Not for me, though. I’m on Lemmy because I can’t sleep. Do not print in the newspaper that I haven’t achieved enlightenment.

massive_bereavement@fedia.io on 15 May 10:30 collapse

So "Dinosaurs" is actually a documentary and birds abandoned technology because it caused mass extinction and future humans will do the same.

bilb@lemmy.ml on 17 May 02:27 collapse

That’s really the only conclusion one can come to, yes.

southsamurai@sh.itjust.works on 15 May 08:49 next collapse

Being real, read the article.

Summarizing it won’t really be useful, or I’d try.

But, assuming everything they’re talking about proves out to be true, this is way cooler than the title makes it seem, on multiple levels. It gives hints at evolutionary pathways for intelligence in more than just what’s found in mammals and birds.

It gives a glimpse at how our intelligence functions at a fundamental level, maybe eventually leading to a reasonable degree of evidence about our selfness, our ability to exist as something other than our animal instincts as well as the things that make us individuals.

But, most importantly to me, it implies that intelligence isn’t a rare and difficult to produce thing evolutionarily. The article also mentions the potential for studies into octopus intelligence using the same methodology. If there’s three independently evolved intelligence structures on one planet, extrapolate the possibilities. Even if it’s just two, that’s still astounding in relation to the question of intelligence as a probability with the presence of any life, given enough time. But three? That’s mind bogglingly indicative that life and intelligence are very likely to go together anywhere life might exist.

massive_bereavement@fedia.io on 15 May 10:24 collapse

Imagine if octopuses lived for 60 years and they figure out we're eating them.
Nobody would ever be safe in a body of salt water.

massive_bereavement@fedia.io on 15 May 10:34 next collapse

In the Movie Matrix, initially the script argued (Spoilers from here) that the machines used human brains as computation farms, but studio execs thought it was "too complicated".

I would argue that using birds (corvids?) seems more cost effective based on energy efficiency per brain gram. Machines would only need a steady supply of corn.

Dogyote@slrpnk.net on 16 May 22:51 next collapse

If you enjoy this idea then you’d probably like Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky and its sequals. Adrian did, imo, an excellent job imagining how other intelligent earth species would behave and form societies.

supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz on 17 May 02:39 collapse

Researchers Still Unable To Count How Many Times Stupidity Evolved Independently On Earth; Nation’s Leading Number Lab Says Quantum Computing Breakthroughs Necessary