Unfortunately, the extent to which we can speculate about the capabilities of other intelligent beings is limited by our own intelligence. If they are smarter than us, we can conceive them to be more proficient in science and engineering. Just like a Neanderthal would probably imagine (if he even could imagine) more sophisticated beings to be much more formidable hunters and tool makers, while being unable to conceive art, diplomacy, metaphysics, or semantics the way we see them. What sort of concepts could a more developed intelligence conceive that we can’t even begin to comprehend, no matter how much our science and technology advance? What level of insight into the nature of life do they have?
Again, going back to the Neanderthal analogy, just imagine that we come into contact with a race that’s just as intellectually capable as the Neanderthal: they would understand their encounter with us very differently from the way we would understand it. They are limited by their brain and would not comprehend our efforts to communicate with them; meanwhile, we would be frustrated and disappointed, as our interaction with them would prove fruitless. Now imagine that we come into contact with a race that’s much, much smarter than us, such that their advantage over us is the same as ours is over the Neanderthal. Would they be frustrated by our inability to do and comprehend what they can do and comprehend? Or is there a minimum level of intelligence that we’ve already achieved, past which all forms of communication are possible? (The same way there is a minimum level of intelligence that dogs have achieved, past which they are as capable as we are of identifying their “loved ones.â€)
The concept of cosmicism, developed by fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft, is more or less related to this issue, as it describes the inability of humanity to comprehend much greater forces that rule the universe, and proposed that the magnitude of these forces renders us insignificant in the grand scheme of things. --
http://listverse.com/Linkback:
https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=53893.0
