Alien motives and human assumptions
We Are Still Learning to Recognise Intelligence at Home
Before asking whether we would recognise an alien mind, look at how recently we conceded that octopuses, corvids, whales, and colonies have minds at all.
Established ScienceWe have been wrong about minds on our own planet in every direction available.
What we actually know
Dolphin signature whistles function as names. Corvids plan for future needs and hold grudges. Octopus cognition is distributed through the arms. Ant colonies and fungal networks compute solutions no individual member represents. Every one of these was dismissed within living memory as anthropomorphic sentiment.
Where the extrapolation begins
Our detector for intelligence is calibrated to things that resemble us — faces, voices, tool use, speech-like structure. Any intelligence organised on a different timescale, substrate, or body plan would sit outside the calibration, and we would record its absence as data.
What the novel invents
Hartmann's seminar makes the point bluntly: a species that argued for two centuries about whether whales have language should be modest about declaring an object silent.
Questions to think about
- — What evidence would convince you that a colony, not an individual, is thinking?
- — How would you detect a mind operating a thousand times slower than yours?
- — Which of our tests for intelligence are really tests for similarity?
Where to read next
- — Godfrey-Smith, Other Minds
- — Research on cetacean signature whistles, corvid planning, collective behaviour
Continue in the archive