Would You Expect a Technologically Advanced Alien Species to have an Intelligence Similar to Ours?

[Sunstone]

Would you expect a technologically advanced alien species to have an intelligence very similar to ours? Why or why not?

Rephrasing the question: In what ways, if any, would you expect a technologically advanced species to be similar to us? Why?

And in what ways, if any, would you expect (or at least not be surprised that) a technologically advanced species might be dissimilar to us? Why?

 

[Iti oj]

Actually I find all scenarios likely....Er possible. .Er plausible. ..

 

[4consideration]

I guess I would expect it to be similar to ours, since I have a hard time conceiving of types of intelligence I can't in some way observe here. I guess I'm not that creative.

I would expect them to be more advanced, so I think my expectation is similar intelligence -- just applied more intelligently to how things are done, built, and prioritized.

 

[Iti oj]

I guess I would expect it to be similar to ours, since I have a hard time conceiving of types of intelligence I can't in some way observe here. I guess I'm not that creative.

I would expect them to be more advanced, so I think my expectation is similar intelligence -- just applied more intelligently to how things are done, built, and prioritized.

A Technologically Advance Hive Mind

 

[Sunstone]

Actually I find all scenarios likely....Er possible. .Er plausible. ..

To get this straight, you think it's possible for an alien species to have advanced technology and not think like us? Wouldn't they need to have mathematics in order to have an advanced tech? And if they could think in mathematical terms, wouldn't they be necessarily be at least a bit like us?

 

[Iti oj]

To get this straight, you think it's possible for an alien species to have advanced technology and not think like us? Wouldn't they need to have mathematics in order to have an advanced tech? And if they could think in mathematical terms, wouldn't they be necessarily be at least a bit like us?

What about my hive mind example?

 

[HonestJoe]

Given the massive diversity of life forms just on Earth, I’d expect any lifeforms that develop in an entirely different environment of another planet to be that much different to anything on Earth. This would be no different for any kind of advance species in relation to intelligence, self-awareness, society and communication. There would obviously be some shared universal concepts – cause and effect for example – but there’s no telling how an alien intelligence might perceive and understand them compared to ourselves.

 

[4consideration]

I'm thinking I would expect other life forms to have (what I would consider to be) similar types of intelligence that don't actually apply to what we might typically think of as "thinking."

I don't know if it currently considered a form of intelligence, but I think that the experience of pain is a type of intelligence that has developed and is crucial in the survival of a life form, in order to know when to stop doing something, or at least assess what one is doing. I would expect other life forms to have some type of similar receptors/processors.

 

[Maponos]

Well, I'd expect them to be any level of intelligent. If they're advanced, then I'd expect them to be intellectually similar to us or more intellectually advanced.

 

[Corthos]

Though I imagine that their understandings of things such as mathematics would be advanced, it'd be faulty to assume that they would process information or draw conclusions the same way we would. Don't forget... Mathematical processes are hardly set in stone, and there are sometimes many ways to work out the same problems, and who knows in what ways evolution on their world has impacted the ways that they think or process information. =)

 

[SpeaksForTheTrees]

Would you expect a technologically advanced alien species to have an intelligence very similar to ours? Why or why not?

Rephrasing the question: In what ways, if any, would you expect a technologically advanced species to be similar to us? Why?

And in what ways, if any, would you expect (or at least not be surprised that) a technologically advanced species might be dissimilar to us? Why?

Hahaha Ferengi , Rules of Acquisition reminds me of a certain someone
Huh don't know my new evolving SIG banishes the thought.
What in this universe is all that matters

 

[Sunstone]

I don't know if it currently considered a form of intelligence, but I think that the experience of pain is a type of intelligence that has developed and is crucial in the survival of a life form, in order to know when to stop doing something, or at least assess what one is doing. I would expect other life forms to have some type of similar receptors/processors.

That seems to me to make sense. Certainly, if a life form experienced some kind of averse feeling similar on some level to pain, then that would have some influence on their psychology, wouldn't it?

 

[Sunstone]

Though I imagine that their understandings of things such as mathematics would be advanced, it'd be faulty to assume that they would process information or draw conclusions the same way we would. Don't forget... Mathematical processes are hardly set in stone, and there are sometimes many ways to work out the same problems, and who knows in what ways evolution on their world has impacted the ways that they think or process information. =)

Good point! I hadn't thought of that.

 

[Sunstone]

Given the massive diversity of life forms just on Earth, I’d expect any lifeforms that develop in an entirely different environment of another planet to be that much different to anything on Earth. This would be no different for any kind of advance species in relation to intelligence, self-awareness, society and communication. There would obviously be some shared universal concepts – cause and effect for example – but there’s no telling how an alien intelligence might perceive and understand them compared to ourselves.

Excellent post!

 

[LuisDantas]

Would you expect a technologically advanced alien species to have an intelligence very similar to ours? Why or why not?

Rephrasing the question: In what ways, if any, would you expect a technologically advanced species to be similar to us? Why?

And in what ways, if any, would you expect (or at least not be surprised that) a technologically advanced species might be dissimilar to us? Why?

Assuming one that we would make contact with, it would have developed mathematics and engineering superior to ours, and be politically very alien indeed.

It would probably have more of a communal mind as well.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Would you expect a technologically advanced alien species to have an intelligence very similar to ours? Why or why not?

Rephrasing the question: In what ways, if any, would you expect a technologically advanced species to be similar to us? Why?

And in what ways, if any, would you expect (or at least not be surprised that) a technologically advanced species might be dissimilar to us? Why?

Since it was not stated, I'll assume technologically advanced to mean roughly as technologically advanced as we are.

This being the case, there are some commonalities we can infer. Our level of technological advancement relies on understanding various rules about how the universe works - in other words, physics. Additionally, in order to understand physics requires understanding the mathematical relationship between various variables, so their understanding of arithmetic and math would probably have to be rather similar.

So, their understanding of physics/math would have to be roughly equal to ours. In order to want to, and be able to, puzzle out math and physics, they would have to have some common intellectual/cognitive traits to us: logical reasoning, pattern recognition/classification, capacity for abstract symbolism, intellectual curiosity, a drive for problem solving, and a complex language which would allow for recording and communicating ideas, among others.

I concede that there may be some other fantastic way that a species could understand, develop, and build advanced technology without understanding math and physics, but I cannot fathom what it could be.