Langley Museum, Virginia, 2012 |
Isaac Arthur explores “Multi-Species Civilizations and
Co-Alien Habitats”, by Isaac Arthir.
Arthur starts out by invoking the world of the first
Star Wars Movie (1977) with dozens of species, consorting with one another in
that gay bar scene on another planet.
Earth is “lucky” that there is just one dominant species,
which is entirely interchangeable reproductively and biologically equal in
capability. Race is not as big a
problem, as species equality if they were able to live together. This might not
be the case in all alien worlds.
Actually, dolphins and orcas may be about the same as
us in intelligence, but live in separate environments. Even so, there are ethical and moral problems,
with using these equals in amusement parks, or in the distant past as a source
of whale oil.
But intelligent beings based on totally different
biology are unlikely to share the same continental living spaces, despite all
of Isaac’s claims. Isaac’s ideas of
breeding cats or dogs with human intelligence sound interesting, but then what
about other apes.
Our nation of intelligence is also limited by
culture. Your cat is smart in ways you
are not because “they” can survive in the wild on the own when you cannot. And
animals may understand our world better than we think they can, as when they
warn us of gas leaks or approaching storms.