Has anyone considered we may be the most intelligent species in the Milky Way?

One of the other points I wanted to address is that, yes, morally and ethically our race is completely backwards. I understand that it's not exactly easy to pat ourselves on the back, even though in some regards I think we deserve it.

But I will say, as inhumane, terrible, and seemingly counterproductive as the act of war may seem, I tend to think it has been one of the driving forces in our technological advancement as a species.

If one can look back on all the wars fought by the human race, if there is ANY good or beneficial outcome to any of them, I would say that they've been something of a catalyst for our technological progression as a species.

Yes, I do agree we are violent, morally ambiguous species, but once again we have no metric to judge just how "good" or "bad" we are in relation to another advanced, intelligent life-form.

Perhaps the most intelligent species in the universe is the one that has seen the most war, constantly driving forward the progression of technology in order to have a leg up over the "enemy."

It seems like a warring race would ultimately end their own existence inadvertently, but what if that never happened?

To me, in the grand scheme of political nonsense and deceit, it seems like war is almost a necessary evil in order to drive forward the technological advancement of a society, as it adds a sense of "urgency."

(I'm not saying I agree with that, the act of killing another human in any capacity (for any reason) is very sad)

[edit on 12-7-2010 by SaosinEngaged]

If we're the most intelligent species in the galaxy, it's because all the other intelligent species have already nuked themselves into oblivion. We're next.

Holy jeebus, are we in trouble if we are the most intelligent species around anywhere...because tht will flatten all my hopes about this species becoming more intelligent, as most of this species are really not very intelligent to begin with. For we can talk but half the time the stuff that comes out of our mouths is retarded, for real!!!!! I mean God help us really!

I hope we're not. If we are the most intelligent things in the milky way, well...that would be awful.

The Human race is the worse species on the planet, unquestionably. Yeah we got some crappy "Hi Tech" things, but thats just for us, and just think about the amount of things we ruin to get what we want. We're a selfish, horrible race of people who can't get along with eachother let alone another race completely. If I was another species of humanoid, and I knew what humans were like, I'd stay well clear of earth until we were either extinct or at least until we've grown up and look after the planet and the rest of it's species of animals like it deserves.

This planet would be incredible if we didn't ruin it.

reply to post by SaosinEngaged



I think the technological advancement of humanity has more over been from overcoming adversity, and problem-solving. This can be through peace and war.

War is advancing humanity alright. It's advancing us steadily to oblivion. We have the capability at hand.






[edit on 12-7-2010 by Regensturm]

Originally posted by dbates
The difficulty of life existing on another planet in the Galaxy is very high. They would need a solar system with a planet in a fixed orbit that wasn't elliptical so the temperatures would be stable. The planet would need to spin at a rate that wasn't too slow or too fast. The star in the system would need to be stable and give off the correct spectrum of light. The planet would need to be the proper distance from the star. It would also seem to be a necessity that the solar system would have several other larger planets to help clean up random debris (comets, asteroids) that could wipe out life.

Yeah.. who says?

You are assuming that life on another planet can only be life like Human life or life 'as we know it'.. those things are Sciences best guess.. and it Is ONLY a guess at how life on Earth formed.

There is no rule book that says life must evolve as we know it under the same circumstances as we did ourselves.

Indeed Physics itself may not follow the same rules as we understand them in other parts of the Galaxy.

This is another fallacy that the Cult of The Church of Science tries to push on people gullible enough to swallow their religion.

Originally posted by SaosinEngaged
Hear me out:

I honestly don't think we, humanity, give ourselves enough credit. I mean we have personal transport machines (cars), personal global communicators (cell phones), anti gravity travel machines (planes), personal computing devices (laptops, tablets, smartphones), and many more instances of "high-tech" things we constantly take for granted.

Personal transportation devices?
Who needs those if you move through space naturally.
No roads and license required.
Personal Global Communicators?
Not needed if you can connect telepathically.
No contracts and no dropped calls. Ever.
Anti Gravity Machines? You call these air-gliding contraptions anti-gravity machines?
At the end gravity always wins, sometimes rather quickly.


S&F for the good laugh, though.

edit to add:
Personal computing machines only needed for those whose brains cannot compute by themselves.

Has anyone considered that an alien civ is much more likely to look at us in those terms rather than to be impressed by our crude gadgets?

[edit on 12-7-2010 by tungus]

Untill we've discovered every solar system and every planet in them then that question will remain unanswered.

I used to believe very firmly that we were the most intelligent species in the Milky Way, and perhaps even the Universe...I could see no valid proof of Alien visitation, I could see no scientists backing up the theory that intelligent life has visited Earth, and possibly still is...but that was before I did any real research into the topic...I've been casually studying the subject for several years now, and I'm beyond the point of even needing to see an Alien for myself...I couldn't possibly confirm my suspicions any more if I tried...there is at least one species of extraterrestrial intelligent life that has, and probably still is visiting Earth for reasons I'm still trying to piece together...

[edit on 12/7/10 by CHA0S]

Originally posted by CHA0S
I used to believe very firmly that we were the most intelligent species in the Milky Way, and perhaps even the Universe...I could see no valid proof of Alien visitation, I could see no scientists backing up the theory that intelligent life has visited Earth, and possibly still is...but that was before I did any real research into the topic...I've been casually studying the subject for several years now, and I'm beyond the point of even needing to see an Alien for myself...I couldn't possibly confirm my suspicions any more if I tried...there is at least one species of extraterrestrial intelligent life that has, and probably still is visiting Earth for reasons I'm still trying to piece together...

[edit on 12/7/10 by CHA0S]

They don't need to of visited Earth to be more intelligent, heck even if they've achieved space flight and colonized their own system. Which we haven't done.

oh gosh, i really hope you're wrong,

or i'd have to lose my faith in life.

reply to post by tungus


measuring the intelligence of a species based upon their ability to create gadgetry is a rather myopic and human-centric way to judge intelligence.

most especially when our doo-dads, and are addictions to them, are *snipping* up this planet something awful.

as tungus has implied, we are energetic beings first, and the honing and channeling of these energies for acts of creativity and love (and not empire building, as we are prone to do) seems like a more effective use of our potential as living beings.


i mean holy beejezus... we can't even cap that damned well!!!!

if we are the most intelligent things in the galaxy, then ignorance must be bliss.


PS i think anytime any race/nation/species says they are the MOST of something, it is a sure sign they are the least.


the wise do not advertise.

[edit on 12-7-2010 by mythos]

reply to post by boondock-saint


I agree. We may well be the most intelligent creatures in the Universe, or Milky Way, or whatever. But if so, it sure isnt saying much.

I think some people confuse the ability to create tools with intelligence.

Consider, you create a one of a kind weapon which you call a "gun" and test fire it several times at other objects, then raise the weapon and test fire it at your own head? Intelligence?

We cant even apply the "knowledge" we have intelligently. (ie in ways that promote our own long term survival.) And out emotional intelligence is collectively somewhere at the level of a disturbed teenager.

So sure, say we are the most intelligent thing in the galaxy, big deal. Collectively we are still a bunch of less hairy chimpanzees with technology we cant handle who dont have a grip on their own impulses. Hardly something to be terribly impressed about.

reply to post by diamount

They don't need to of visited Earth to be more intelligent, heck even if they've achieved space flight and colonized their own system. Which we haven't done.

Well, assuming they didn't come from a planet within our own olar system...yes, they would have to be more intelligent...and even if they did come from a planet within our solar system, there's an extremely high chance they're more intelligent than us because they've managed to go unnoticed for a very long time, and most of the planets and orbiting satellites in our solar system don't seem very habitable to me, they'd obviously need some sort of advanced artificial structure to live within, unless they evolved on that planet...but either way they seem to get around the solar system a lot more than us, and their crafts are obviously more advanced than ours because according to everything I've learned they make maneuvers and travel at speeds far greater than any man made craft is capable is.

EDIT: Oh, sorry, I thought you said just because they've visited Earth doesn't make them more intelligent, my reply is still relevant and makes sense though.

[edit on 12/7/10 by CHA0S]

Couple of things:

We always attempt to humanize everything as if we're the standard. I noticed someone using the logic that there are only so many water based planets with their moon in standard. See this is the mistake that our science make.

Who says all forms of life must be water based? As someone else said we may be the oddities! The majority of life forms may be composed of different gases instead of water.

If such a species evolved on say Jupiter, they would have been able to achieve space travel much sooner in evolution than us with our limitations. They may have been here or may still be here under our noses and we wouldn't know because we're searching for biology. A satellite sent there may pass thru a entire cloud city and not read anything.

We may be the dumbest species on this planet. I mean we're the only species not in harmony with our mother. We try and measure intelligence with technology which is wrong. Taking the movie Avatar, I say the blue humanoids were more intelligent than humans. They just evolved in a different manner. Perhaps millions of years in their evolution, they were like us and dependant upon tech. Then they evolved to be more spiritual and energy based.

While I doubt we're the smartest, I do believe that we're the most dangerous. This may be a reason why other species chose to avoid our planet. We make movies of terrible aliens eating people, I believe the opposite would happen if we ever achieved space travel. Aliens would be making horror movies with humans as the bad guys. What other species we're aware of war as we do?

Last thing, I heard a scientist say that if we built our road next to a ants mound, would that ant be aware enough to know. Basically, we may be ants next to a super highway and are to small and insignificant to know.

heh I dont know about you guys but, if thats the case, then the Milky Way has aimed pretty low!

reply to post by tungus


I absolutely understand what you're trying to say, and don't disagree there may be a species that looks upon us with our "crude gadgets" in a mocking manner, but do we have any idea how that kind of telepathic connectivity would occur?

Would it be some advanced, long term evolutionary step?

Or come about in some artificial/biologic fusion?

reply to post by DZAG Wright


I do agree with this. Really.

I don't think all life in the universe is water based, or has evolved even in a similar way as us.

But you have to consider that unfortunately science can only operate by stacking new information on top of proven baselines, which in our case is water based life in a temperate climate.

If we're going to look for life, why not start with what we know? It just makes the most sense.

But I do agree, there's probably life out there forming in utterly bizarre ways beyond the comprehension of science today.

[edit on 12-7-2010 by SaosinEngaged]

Apparently there are many bigger fish in the Universe who see humans as insects. Just saying we're not the top of the heap here, and that what was said was not meant in a negative way, on one occasion at least it was directed towards our lack of consciousness and concern for others only concerning ourselves with the material. Unless we push the limits on our consciousness, psi, telepathy, compassion, heart, mind and soul, we will not progress to reach the level our advanced cosmic family is at.

reply to post by SaosinEngaged

If we were the most advanced in the universe, then I hold out no hope for anything... many animals seem more intelligent than we could ever be.

What sort of race develops toxin spewing transport systems, or uses up as much natural resources as it can as quickly as it can, or adds toxins to almost every product it manufactures? Humans do, and don't usually give it a second thought.

We are more like a disease on this world, and I hope we don't learn the secrets of Interstellar travel until we are done with our abusive approach to life on earth.. otherwise we will do as portrayed in Avatar for instance.