By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Egann on 09 July 2013
Edit Thread
spurgeonryan said:
Egann said:

Please note that it is the inevitable fate of all species on Earth to melt into puddles of lava when the sun becomes a red giant. Humans are also the only species on Earth with the potential to change that and preserve Earth's ecosystems, and probably the only one with that potential Earth has ever evolved.

(No, seriously. The list of required traits for intelligence is LONG. Dawkins is quoted as saying it is reasonably unlikely Earth will evolve another intelligent species if we go extinct.) 


To personify the Earth, think of humans as an investment to save Earth's biomes from inevitable death. I'd say that investment is worth some serious risk. Our planet has certainly had mass extinctions for lesser causes.

Just happened to come back to this. Why would Earth not evolve another intelligent species if we all became extinct?

 

Another question. Could Earth evolve to against humans as it did in After Earth? Or even how it was millions of years ago when Dinosaurs roamed the earth ( or in Christianity time, 10,000 years or less ago).

I didn't say Earth couldn't evolve another species, but that it was reasonably unlikely. 

Most people critically underestimate how demanding intelligence is as an attribute. Here's a quick rundown of a few of the requirements:

  • Warm blooded metabolism: Your brain burns 20-25% of your net metabolic energy. If you weren't warm blooded, this would be like doubling your metabolic needs. Even most warm-blooded animals don't eat a diet which can sustain a brain like ours. 
  • Intelligent creatures have to be social and communicative. The vast majority of human experiences are experienced vicariously with language. In this sense, a brain is only as good as the community behind it: the bigger and more inquisitive the community, the better the brains it produces. A potentially intelligent brain in isolation is useless because it can't learn to do anything.
  • Brains take years to grow. Most of the livestock animals we keep are larger than we are, but they mature faster because they don't have to feed a brain with new ideas.
So let's recap. In traditional darwinian evolution, what conditions make intelligence likely to arise? A large community of metabolically superior animals in a time of plenty, safety, and relative stability. Nothing about this jives with selective pressures. Most species would have a boom-bust cycle and that would be it. No intelligence.
As to your second question, I don't understand what you're asking.