For various reasons, recently I’ve been contemplating the question of human uniqueness in the galaxy. There’s a possibility that we – humans – are the only, um, “intelligent” species currently in existence anywhere in the galaxy. That’s what we call ourselves, “intelligent.” I see a lot of room for questions. We call ourselves “intelligent” because we’ve decided the criteria to our own advantage. I guess that’s clever. I’ll keep using that description, “intelligent,” since there’s no one around to debate the point. Please just understand, I’m not convinced.
Personally, I don’t really accept that we’re the only. I’m also not a big believer in aliens visiting Earth. But they must be out there. The one fact I have – a thing I know for sure – is that life finds a way. One hears scientists speculate that they can’t see how life could exist in such-and-such an environment only to find such an environment, discover life DOES exist there, and then figure out how. They found a lichen that sucks moisture from rocks! Update the records.
I currently subscribe to the idea that there are other “intelligent” species out there. They rise to a certain technological level – about where we are right now, by the way – and then do something spectacularly stupid – confident, at the time, in their own intelligence. They either wipe themselves out entirely, or knock themselves back to their own Stone Age and have to start again.
But if it IS true that we, the species, are, in fact, the only “intelligent” species ever to rise to this level, we’re sure doing a lousy job of representing “intelligence.” I mean, if we ARE the singular example – and there’s no evidence of aliens elsewhere – don’t we have a high obligation to represent better than we’re doing? Don’t we have a moral obligation to be the best we can be? Is that how it looks to you?
We’ve put ourselves directly on a path to our own destruction. We KNOW it. We’re doing it anyway. “Well, sure, Dan, we ARE going to wipe ourselves out of existence day-after-tomorrow, but we really need to maximize shareholder value today.” That suggests we’ve been FAR to generous in our own description of ourselves. We’ve been, here it is again, clever, not “intelligent.” We find solutions to common problems and we use skills in practical ways. But do we have a high level of understanding and cognitive ability?
Would an intelligent species really just continue to abuse it’s own environment, ignoring each and every warning sign as it comes up? Would a genuinely intelligent species really risk wiping itself off the planet using weapons so powerful we can accomplish that feat by accident? No, there are many, many contraindicators regarding our own, self-described “intelligence.”
The current form of human has been around for something like 300,000 years. It makes sense that, early on, we might have settled differences by trying to kill each other. But 300,000 years later and we STILL haven’t figured out a better, more civilized way? How is that “intelligent?” What we DID was come up with better ways to accomplish the same old goal. Clever.
Early on, there weren’t enough of us to affect our environment. There are now, and we’re doing it. We know we’re doing it. We care, just not enough to stop doing it. It would be very inconvenient. A storm just passed over Michigan and the tornadoes that came with it killed at least six people. The storm-front was born down near Texas and maintained it’s strength as it crossed the continent into Michigan. That’s climate change. More powerful storms. We KNOW it.
We also know what causes it. I’m pretty sure an intelligent species would realize the situation, then seek and implement a better way. We even know the better way we need to pursue! Instead, we’re doubling down on the things we KNOW we need to stop doing if we want to survive this thing. That’s a pretty high stakes game we, the so-called “intelligent” species, are playing.
If we were intelligent, shouldn’t we have left the trappings of ignorance behind by now? Shouldn’t we learn from previous mistakes and find ways to keep from making them again? But we don’t do that. We just keep making the same mistakes, over and over again. That’s not intelligent. But we repeat those mistakes more efficiently and effectively, because we’re clever. Lovely.
As a species, we have (had?) tremendous potential. Unfortunately, our potential has been overshadowed by our application. While we call ourselves “intelligent,” we’re actively involved in exactly the kind of spectacular stupidity that will roll us back to our Stone Age or possibly wipe us out, entirely. Hey, at least we’ll be clever about it…



