Questions tagged [intelligence]
For questions discussing some level of self-awareness.
152 questions
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How would quadrupedal tetrapods use complex tools and become more technologically advanced?
Would quadrupedal tetrapod species be able to utilise complex tools to develop further technologically?
(Complex tools meaning purposefully constructed and shaped to perform a task, for example humans ...
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Pathogenic Hive-Intelligence When Critical Mass is Reached
Could there be a virus or amoeba or protist or bacteria (or fungal but that is over-used in pop culture) that infects humans (and possibly other lifeforms) that by itself is not sentient but as they ...
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How would a CIA program to investigate the truth of religion work? [closed]
I'm developing a story in which the CIA has investigated the truth of religion. In real life, during the Cold War the CIA investigated things like aliens, psychic powers, etc. That’s because if ...
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What evolutionary pressure would lead to parrots or crows developing human-tier intelligence?
Several avian species such as African grey parrots or the New Caledonian crow have demonstrated tool use, the ability to use new information in separate contexts, and other types of cognition that ...
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Does the inclusion of common non-humanoid alien species make rare humanoid alien species more believable?
In a Sci-Fi setting, if there is a vast amount of non-humanoid intelligent life in the universe, like perhaps 20 or 30 species, would this make 4 or 5 species that look similar to each other, or ...
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Must a sapient species rely entirely on language to advance? [closed]
Humans, unlike other intelligent species, have a unique reliance on our language. Is this required? Could a species, with language, realistically advance to human-level technology without having a ...
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How should I order the categories of my magic system? [closed]
In my world where intelligence is everything, the study of magic is divided into different categories. The type of intelligence you have will affect the kind of magic you use.I’ll come up with names ...
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Objectively most efficient way to increase focus?
If resistance is how long you can go doing physically exausting stuff before you die or get overtraining fever
then focus is the analogue to magic, your ability to perform magically exhausting stuff ...
user100394
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How could a really intelligent species be stopped from developing?
How could a really intelligent species be kept from developing? For clarification, this species is the only creature of intelligent thought on the planet and they have a population of about 50 million ...
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Would human intelligence evolve if humans had access to infinite food?
In a world with infinite food (each organism had access to an infinite amount of food/energy from another universe), would human intelligence develop through some evolutionary mechanism?
If resources ...
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Can a lone alien entity develop an internal language?
I'm imagining a hypothetical lone organism on a planet. Something like Avatar, the movie's Eywa. I am envisioning it as a massive organism covering the entire surface of the planet but biologically ...
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Could a species with human-like intelligence keep a biological caste system?
Evidence exists that Hymenopteran eusocial insects possess higher social and logical intelligence than most other insects (i.e. facial recognition in wasps, limited self-awareness in ants), suggesting ...
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Could a creature with dolphin-level intelligence created and raised in a lab be able to understand enough human language to follow a tv show?
I have this idea in my head of a giant creature that was made in a lab, handlers and staff found they can calm it down by turning on a tv show it likes. One day however the relationship of 2 ...
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Sapient as juveniles, monstrous as adults
I'm playing around with an idea in my head for a speculative species and I'd appreciate any help with a problem I've encountered trying to make them plausible.
Let's say I have a species of animal, X. ...
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Could you detect extrasolar intelligence using a non radio-telescope or other instrument?
The James Webb Space Telescope, after decades of development, has finally launched. It stands to reveal great knowledge about the dawn of the universe, and great insights into extrasolar planets.
With ...
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crystalline fungi: is it possible, or should I excuse it with mAgIc/
A species of fungi known as Golloriee is a fairly uncommon creature I've come up with. Its origins are certainly very unnatural, but have been shrouded in folklore over time, they say the crystals ...
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Coexisting with a sapient swarm intelligence
My story involves a sapient swarm intelligence, which I've detailed in a previous question here. I'd like to ask an additional question that is related but different from my original post:
Is it ...
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Mental characteristics of a sapient swarm intelligence
My story involves a sapient swarm intelligence, which I've detailed in a previous question here. I'd like to ask an additional couple questions that are related but different from my original post:
...
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Interacting with a sapient swarm intelligence
I'd like to use a story with a sapient swarm intelligence because I find the idea interesting, but I'm having trouble developing some of the finer details of how this intelligence would interact with ...
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Why have my intelligent pigeons not taken over the continent?
My story takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where there are no humans. On the island of Manhattan, which has been abandoned for a long time, there are communities of animals with human-level ...
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How unintelligent can a gelatin mimic be?
The mimic resembles a transparent slime of gelatinous mass capable of changing colours and also shape.
In front of a predator, as a defense mechanism the slime mimic will shapeshift into a wobbly and ...
user89947
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Would unintelligent humanoids end up losing their language and inventive powers?
If a hominid with a human-like mind became less intelligent due to adaptation to a reduction in food, would this be likely to lead to the loss of language and the ability to make complex tools?
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Does human-like invention require language and intelligence?
Humans seem to have a unique ability to invent new ideas and solutions to problems, in a way that no other intelligent creature can. This is clearly not a natural product of our dexterity, ...
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Civilization's level of intellectual development, we and aliens [closed]
I believe that all of you should know the Kardashev scale. The method that the Russian scientist created gave us a practical way - a marker, which allows us to assess the technological level of ...
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How Could Animals Revolt Against Humans? [closed]
So, in a story, I am writing (Which takes place on Earth, three or four centuries from now) animals revolt against humans as a collective force. I would assume that it is mainly the wild animals ...
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How can the intelligence of a super-intelligent person be assessed?
One of the features of my story is a psychological examination of a certain person who lost his memory (found on a bench in a city park with complete amnesia) and after a short examination was taken ...
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Uncovering superhuman cetacean intelligence
My world is as close as possible to contemporary real life under the constraint that orcas (and maybe other cetaceans) are significantly smarter than humans.
What is smarts?
We define it as ...
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Is mirror test a good way to explore alien inhabited world safely?
In a distant future our robot will be setting their tracks on another hospitable planet, I believe we are not alone and there must be other intelligence beings out there in these billions upon ...
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Can a planet dream of sheep?
I had a peculiar dream...
There is a terrestrial planet orbiting an unknown multi stars system, that planet in fact is alive as in its a living planet. Just like the Portuguese man of war it is ...
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Could intelligent animals stop civilizations from colonizing too much land?
I am trying to create a world where humans can survive and thrive, but they are unable to colonize every piece of fertile land available. There are great civilizations (early medieval technology) and ...
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Subtle sapience potential
How can you show that a species has the potential to become fully sapient like us but isn't quite there yet? So far I have social structure and versatile appendages.
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Land-based radially symmetrical intelligent aliens [closed]
Let's set up our planet and aliens:
The planet is reasonably Earth-like; similar size, orbiting similar star at a similar distance, plenty of water and land.
Our aliens are carbon-based, oxygen ...
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Which countries today might realistically become "anti-IQ" in a future world divided between "anti-IQ" and "pro-IQ" blocs?
I am in the process of imagining a world in the late 2020s which is divided into two blocs:
an alliance A of countries in which the governments strongly assert the idea that "general ...
user62587
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How intelligent would a real life fairy be? [closed]
Because fairies are rather small, I'm assuming they wouldn’t be able to be all that intelligent. what I’m wondering, however, is just how intelligent? Let’s say that they’re about the size of a ...
user79037
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Miniaturization of nerve cells
Let's not look at other avenues for increasing intelligence in an animal of a given size. What changes to known biology are necessary to allow individual nerve cells to be significantly smaller and ...
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Why do orcs have relatively longer period of immaturity?
Description of orcs: Adult healthy male looks like a wild boar walking on two legs towering at 4m tall and weights almost a metric tonne, average lifespan 150-175 years.
Diet: Similar to a pig.
Hobby: ...
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Would a human brain with 50% fewer neurons but 50% more dendrites be as intelligent in modern society?
Suppose advancement in medicine and using cutting edge technology we could remove (halve) the amount of neurons in a healthy brain and allow the left over neurons to somehow grows extra dendrites that ...
- 48.1k
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How could octopuses evolve a complex society [duplicate]
The title is a bit misleading, but let me explain.
Octopuses are seen to be quite intelligent, capable of solving complex puzzles, manipulate tools, and are even capable of becoming bored. This ...
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Intelligent life from trial by wildfires
In my question:
Sustainability of Regular Global Wildfires Due to Oxygen Rich Atmosphere
An answer was proposed for a kind of "Boom Bust Cycle".
The atmosphere has little CO2 but a lot of O2....
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How to Advance Barbaric Tribes [closed]
In a world full of barbaric tribes, there lives a small gathering of advanced sages. Their hearts are full of knowledge and benevolence for all living beings. They can advance human being to the ...
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Individualist Intelligence
Under what circumstances could an inherently individualist species become intelligent and advanced?
Usually, animals require social interaction for intelligence to develope. Or at least that's what ...
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Myelination in cephalopods
I am a complete amateur regarding biology, so please forgive me if this question is a little stupid.
Could we ever create squids that have human-level intelligence and could serve as a replacement in ...
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Would it be possible for species to become sapient without using tools?
Set in a parallel universe, in a galaxy far far away, an Earth-like planet orbiting a yellow dwarf star with the mass of 1 solar mass. And yes, indeed that planet comes with a natural satellite that ...
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Are there any mathematics that could only be learned by very few people?
I'm worldbuilding a situation where new drug increases IQ when given to preschool children. Unfortunately only 1% of the recipients get the benefits, the rest risk their development being stunted. As ...
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World With No Concept of Numbers [closed]
Nothing repeats in this world. Nothing happens as much similar to another thing already happened that #2 can be assigned to it, even superficially.
Can intelligent life exist in such world?
By ...
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what is the minimum level of inteligence for a species to theoretically have the concept of God and form a religion? [closed]
This might be hard to answer if we think about all other life on our planet, even with animals such as dolphins, octopi, chimpanzees and others that show relatively high levels of intelligence but as ...
user59653
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Is there a practical way of making democratic-like system skewed towards competence?
There were here some discussion concerning using IQ or paid taxes as proxy of citizens merit, for purposes of making some a bit more meritocratic system. While some objections I'd consider excessive (...
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Building a 'realistic' world where the inhabitants have a different IQ than our real-world average?
I've been randomly looking up stuff about the movie Idiocracy. After watching a video on youtube claiming that the world of Idiocracy is actually a Utopia (because the world seems to not have the ...
user66386
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How would my creatures handle groups without a strong concept of numbers?
I'm thinking about a species that is at the intelligence level of proto-humans. They have limited language but can still discuss concrete things with a little bit of abstraction. For instance, their ...
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Relationship between intelligence of the most advanced species and planet size [closed]
My world is similar to that of Contact (1997) with Jodie Foster, but hopefully more realistic scientifically.
In order not to bump into hostile life on our bold adventures; more intelligent than us,...
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