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Not every intelligent life form out there will have the same homicidal baggage in their genes as the homo sapiens


Why not? The same general biological evolutionary principles would apply.


I'd suspect the vast majority would. Apex predators are pretty much the only niche that gains any incremental, real utility from investing energy in increased intelligence. What benefit would an individual slightly smarter manatee acquire?


Hi, I found this comment interesting could you please elaborate? Don't scavengers benefit from as much intelligence as possible to survive?


Scavengers are probably the second most likely to develop intelligence, and I was definitely thinking in terms of carnivore vs. herbivore. Intelligent scavengers such as corvids and raccoons come to mind. That said, it's quite possible to scavenge with limited intellect. Vultures, for example, are somewhat intelligent, but not the extent of a dolphin, wolf, or primate. Additionally, a sufficiently intelligent scavenger will probably eventually turn to hunting. If you've got tool use, and are hungry for something dead, it's not a terrible leap to kill the thing yourself.

On the whole, intelligence in nature is largely focused on predicting another animal's actions, and planning to take advantage of that foresight. The benefit of being better at that than your peers is immediately obvious in a hunter: predict, hunt, kill, eat. For things that aren't doing the hunting, more passive solutions can be optimal: evolving faster escapes, or natural defenses such as being very large take less energy, and can be developed much faster, when compared to the rather energy intensive process of maintaining a large brain and raising intelligent young.




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