abstract
| - Everyone always assumes that just because a species is capable of interstellar travel, that means they must have unimaginably superior intellects. But this is a drastic case of You Fail Logic Forever. Human beings have been improving our inventions for eons and throughout all the thousands and thousands of years of constant technological advancements our brains have not evolved in intelligence to a very significant degree. In the amount of time it would probably take us to make it all the way to the point where we can travel to another galaxy--say, another few hundred years--we certainly still won't have reached that point. Probably not even in another few thousand. Especially not now that we're evolving less than before. An alien species analogous to our own in advancement would presumably be the same. That's how evolution works. When you get to a certain point, your brain doesn't need to evolve much more. Evolution is about survival in the wild, not technological convenience. You can't just automatically equate technological prowess with intelligence like it's an automatic given. Think, people. THINK. Don't assume. Think. These creatures are, if anything, less bright than humans--or at least than some of the smarter humans. The way they're hard wired, they seem to be better at long term planning than short term problem solving. They can set up tricks and traps and invasions well enough, but when confronted with something they didn't expect they always seem to miss the frickin' obvious and they don't know how to deal with it. If they were as brilliant as everyone thinks being capable of interstellar travel magically automatically qualifies you as being then they wouldn't act in such a way. This isn't an inconsistency: rather, it is a more or less realistic depiction of how such a species may be on a strange new planet.
* Technically not entirely true. If they can make stuff, like starships or power armor, that doesn't make them smart, but they also used starships, so they understand (at least) basic principles of mechanics. They seem to understand human psychology when they take hostages. Like monkeys. Stupid - yeah, but not as stupid to be incapable of making power armor suits and using them. Yet they fail...
* The ones who built the starships, and the ones who fly them, are the ones who understand at least basic principles of mechanics. The ones who were down on earth might actually just be cannon fodder. Or to put it another way, majority of us don't know how to put together an airconditioning unit, much less an airplane or space shuttle. Why should they?
* Actually any species advanced enough to invent Interstellar travel will have modified their genome to increase intelligence. Its discussed in Stephen Hawking's Universe in a Nutshell. Artificial wombs would have to be used however as the increased brain mass would make normal childbirth impossible.
* No, just no. Hawkings pet beliefs about about aliens are hardly more credible than anyone else's.
* Our intelligence has not improved, no. But our knowledge has increased. And we have, in fact, become more intelligent by proxy. We do not become more intelligent, but our machines can, and have.
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