Quote:
Originally Posted by LonelySpoon
I was a big believer in life elsewhere, until a speaker at one NACAA conference made the point the Madagascar and NZ had been isolated long enough, with all the right conditions, for either lemurs or parrots to develop as 'intelligent beings'- much longer than it took us to come about...
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I hope I'm not boring everyone by posting so many times on this subject, but I find this very interesting, so please forgive me. Also thanks Neville, I didn't know the NACAA existed, I did some searching and it sounds like the conferences are fun.
Back to the subject.
Evolution doesn't have a bias towards intelligence. It only selects for variations that allow more success at living long enough to breed.
Humans wondering why more animals don't have large brains is like an elephant wondering why other animals don't have longer noses.
Long noses provide a real survival advantage to elephants as does intelligence for us, but that doesn't necessarily mean they'll work for any other animals.
Chris