141
votes
In a cemetery, what evidence could be found that humans were intelligent and had technology?
Medical Devices, Medical Evidence
Some of the skeletons will show obvious signs of recovery from normally fatal illnesses, obvious signs of advanced surgery like titanium pins in healed broken bones, ...
- 21.2k
94
votes
Accepted
Can the number of letters in alphabet suggest how advanced civilization is?
There's practically no correlation between the complexity of a given language and the complexity of the writing system used to represent it. Japanese and Korean are both very complex languages, able ...
- 1,871
89
votes
Are there any mathematics that could only be learned by very few people?
Main Answer
I have a PhD in Mathematics and came across this question. To be honest, I dislike almost every single answer, except maybe L.Dutch's answer concerning Wile's proof of Fermat's last ...
- 795
86
votes
Accepted
Best species to breed to intelligence
Raccoons
The prime thing for intelligence is the ability to manipulate objects. Dolphins might have large brains but they can't really develop complex tools easily.
Raccoons are highly adaptable, ...
- 47.8k
71
votes
How can the intelligence of a super-intelligent person be assessed?
You're telling a story. Having a character take an IQ test is bland.
Rather than have some scientist say, "we measured your IQ and it's really high!", have your character actually do ...
70
votes
Accepted
Why did dragons evolve to be smart?
It's difficult to come up with an evolutionary pressure that would select for intelligence when most dragons will survive regardless.
This is, of course, the key point. What do dragons do? Hunt the ...
- 33.4k
67
votes
Accepted
Two or more advanced civilizations aren't even aware of each other
Easy
Space is big.
Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just ...
- 5,837
58
votes
How much smarter would bred humans become?
Intelligence is not a singular trait
There are many facets to intelligence. Let's start with some animal examples:
Dogs.
Everybody loves dogs and dogs love everybody. They have incredible social ...
- 6,839
56
votes
Can the number of letters in alphabet suggest how advanced civilization is?
can a number of letters in alphabet suggest how advance the civilization is?
There is no correlation between the technological advancement of a civilization and the number of symbols in its alphabet. ...
- 301k
55
votes
Two or more advanced civilizations aren't even aware of each other
Haste makes waste!
You have your brand new shiny FTL drive, and the bureaucrats are demanding progress. You have to catalogue 50 new planets this week. Never mind that you can barely check the ...
- 133k
53
votes
In a cemetery, what evidence could be found that humans were intelligent and had technology?
What does one normally find in a cemetery?
Headstones. Headstones have designs and markings, and chances are, they're going to be at least partially preserved.
Coffins. Coffins are less than 7000 ...
- 102k
48
votes
Are there any mathematics that could only be learned by very few people?
No such thing exists.
All mathematics is a type of language. Like language, it looks mysterious to people who don't speak it. But if you study it enough, you will understand it. There are no ...
- 5,627
41
votes
Why did dragons evolve to be smart?
Intelligence evolved with size and fire-breathing, not separately
What evolutionary pressure is there that has made a small primate develop intelligence to the point of having ethics of fairness?
We ...
- 44k
41
votes
Accepted
How much smarter would bred humans become?
Since as far as I know nobody bred humans, we can't tell for sure, so take below answer as pop scientific. It's using the breeder equation and regression to the mean.
Assuming that that average IQ ...
- 466
40
votes
Accepted
Why have my intelligent pigeons not taken over the continent?
To these animals, Manhattan is the civilized world. Anywhere else is just lawless wilderness inhabited by feral creatures that will prey on each other without a second thought. To move away from there ...
- 2,250
39
votes
Can the number of letters in alphabet suggest how advanced civilization is?
No.
An inverse relation is more likely.
Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs: around 1000 symbols.
Modern English: 26 symbols + 10 digits + punctuation.
Communication between artificial intelligences: not ...
- 1,964
38
votes
Accepted
Could a sedentary organism develop intelligence, or even sentience?
The only limitation of the development of intelligence is an evolutionary purpose. Every significant trait or feature present in a living organism is there because it helps that organism survive and ...
- 13.8k
34
votes
Accepted
Is mirror test a good way to explore alien inhabited world safely?
Bad idea.
bad, BAD idea.
Many animals ignore mirror.
Many animals violently attack mirror.
Some animals stop to adjust their makeup.
NONE of them display natural behaviour when facing a mirror!
Is ...
- 26.3k
34
votes
Accepted
Does the inclusion of common non-humanoid alien species make rare humanoid alien species more believable?
The default humanoid is more believable than you think
A lifeform does not have to be humanoid to be intelligent, but being generally humanoid helps a LOT with tool use. On Earth, we have a few ...
- 105k
33
votes
Best species to breed to intelligence
Limited to animals found naturally in northern California?
Crows.
Scientific studies have found that crows are as intelligent as seven-year-old human children, being capable of tool use, problem ...
- 5,372
32
votes
In a cemetery, what evidence could be found that humans were intelligent and had technology?
The headstone is probably more than enough; we understand the Ancestors had some sort of conception of death and possibly an afterlife because neolithic and even Neanderthals were buried, often with ...
- 97.9k
29
votes
Best species to breed to intelligence
Since you're in charge, the best way to go might just be squishy.
Cephalopods.:
nervous system of cephalopods is the most complex of the invertebrates
Best to work with a species that has huge ...
- 27.5k
29
votes
Are there any mathematics that could only be learned by very few people?
Instead of looking for new math that the children can do, show them learning math faster.
All new math is built on the old. To do some incredibly complex proof, you'll typically need algebra, ...
- 4,176
28
votes
A world without natural time measures
They are intelligent, therefore they can notice that they grow up.
Growing up is change, and change can only occur in a dimension called time.
You might ignore the concept of "meter" or "yard", but ...
- 301k
28
votes
Is there a practical way of making democratic-like system skewed towards competence?
There have been several proposed systems for supposedly fair, unequal voting rights. The problem is that what some sees as manifestly fair, others will see as grossly unfair. Hence, they will fail the ...
- 16.4k
26
votes
Accepted
A world without natural time measures
They could likely develop both time and technology, but likely very slowly
If we postulate that there would be essentially no variations in the nature around them - constant light, constant food ...
- 2,485
25
votes
Is intelligence the "natural" product of evolution?
No, this is definitely not the case. Increased mental power has a significant calorie and other cost so it needs to give equally significant gains for it to be favored by evolution. In other words "...
- 77.3k
25
votes
Accepted
Plant based lifeforms: brain equivalent?
Method A: Evolving a True Plant with Neural Tissue
This method describes how a traditional, plantlike organism could evolve a "brain" while maintaining plantlike characteristics in every generation.
...
- 20.6k
24
votes
Could a sedentary organism develop intelligence, or even sentience?
As mentioned by others,
Nothing evolves an adaptation just because. The reason there is a correlation between movement and intelligence is because movement requires understanding of your environment (...
- 11.3k
24
votes
Accepted
How can a sapient species build an advanced civilization, while remaining on one continent?
How can a sapient species build an advanced civilization, while remaining on one continent?
Firstly let me describe your relationship to your home continent:
- Sapience does not signify a lack of ...
- 27.5k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible