Homo Sapiens Not Evolve

Since we can't get into their heads, and there is no real consensus regarding whether or not whales and dolphins really have human-level intelligence, I would argue that an animal must be able to manipulate its environment (while at the same time being able to do other things like move, breathe, eat, and communicate) to become highly intelligent in a human sense. Humans did not evolve intelligence until a permanent upright posture freeing the hands was achieved. With fairly minor changes possible candidates for evolution to human-level intelligence could be (or could have been)

bipedal dinosaurs with grasping hands
elephants or other animals
another variety of ape or monkey
octopi and squid
animals with prehensile tails
 
Otters... If not us, let it be Otters!

That's what I'd go for too! They're already pretty intelligent, they use crude tools (rocks, etc), they're very social, and they like to play... plus they're just so cute!!

The South American otters can grow to over 6ft long, and are quite ferocious, they stand off the caimans there.... so they're agressive enough to stay on top of the food chain.
 
Aquatic animals have more against them than simply not having hands. They also don't have access to fire and limited access to wood. Even the marine animals like Octopi that can live briefly out of water have limits to what they can do based on time, and it would take a long time for them to figure out the concept of fire since they would have less chance to experience it naturally.
 
The one thing that would define sentience is lateral thinking, and being able to learn and theorize things. It's been a short time on an evolution scale between now and when the genus Homo evolved. In another few million years in this non-human TL, animals such as birds and other already intelligent animals will evolve mentally to be able to problem-solve, for example, a parrot using a stick to get at something.

Also, for language. We humans have complicated languages, while animals like lions or wolves have specific calls that are proven to mean certain things. Birds make calls, but as they evolve, perhaps they'd evolve combinations of calls and whatnot, that mean as much of a wide range as human language. It all involves brain development. Also the avian windpipe would evolve a bit to accomidate more sounds, even though parrots can immitate human language.
 
The one thing that would define sentience is lateral thinking, and being able to learn and theorize things. It's been a short time on an evolution scale between now and when the genus Homo evolved. In another few million years in this non-human TL, animals such as birds and other already intelligent animals will evolve mentally to be able to problem-solve, for example, a parrot using a stick to get at something.

Also, for language. We humans have complicated languages, while animals like lions or wolves have specific calls that are proven to mean certain things. Birds make calls, but as they evolve, perhaps they'd evolve combinations of calls and whatnot, that mean as much of a wide range as human language. It all involves brain development. Also the avian windpipe would evolve a bit to accomidate more sounds, even though parrots can immitate human language.

They were just discussing this on a show on National Geographic. That unlike Apes, humans can think laterally. For instance, when they were given an L shaped object and told to stand it on one end, they could, but when one end was heavier, they didn't seem to realize that something had been changed and simply kept trying to do it. Humans, on the other hand, will realize that something is wrong with the object. There is something to do with the understanding of physics. They also said that humans mimic behavior, even when shown to be completely unncessary to get at the goal, while chimps will skip the step. Completely copying an act is apparently another thing that sets us apart.
 
They were just discussing this on a show on National Geographic. That unlike Apes, humans can think laterally. For instance, when they were given an L shaped object and told to stand it on one end, they could, but when one end was heavier, they didn't seem to realize that something had been changed and simply kept trying to do it. Humans, on the other hand, will realize that something is wrong with the object. There is something to do with the understanding of physics. They also said that humans mimic behavior, even when shown to be completely unncessary to get at the goal, while chimps will skip the step. Completely copying an act is apparently another thing that sets us apart.

I'm watching that show right now! How odd!
 
In Star Trek Klingons are from Cats, Ferengi from bats, Cardassians from lizards. Were Bajorans from Ferrets?

There was an episode of TNG where the crew members of the Enterprise were struck by some disease which caused them to de-evolve to earlier forms. Worf ended up as some sort of bi-pedal predator with scaly skin and venom glands. It looked NOTHING like a cat. So I don't know where you get all that particular bit of information, but based on that episode, it is wrong.
 

mojojojo

Gone Fishin'
There was an episode of TNG where the crew members of the Enterprise were struck by some disease which caused them to de-evolve to earlier forms. Worf ended up as some sort of bi-pedal predator with scaly skin and venom glands. It looked NOTHING like a cat. So I don't know where you get all that particular bit of information, but based on that episode, it is wrong.
Yeah, it kind of reminded me of a cross between an ape and a horny toad; Nothing catlike about it.
 
The one thing that would define sentience is lateral thinking, and being able to learn and theorize things. It's been a short time on an evolution scale between now and when the genus Homo evolved. In another few million years in this non-human TL, animals such as birds and other already intelligent animals will evolve mentally to be able to problem-solve, for example, a parrot using a stick to get at something.

Birds, and other animals as well, already have the capacity to problem solve. For example, I once read about a bird which noticed that fish tended to collect in areas where humans were throwing bread in the water. So it started stealing bread and putting it in the water itself, whereupon it caught more fish. I have personally observed my cats solve complex problems as well and come up with innovative solutions (sometimes to my complete mortification...damned cats! LOL).

The problem animals have is that for whatever reason, animals can't seem to teach such innovations to their young, and thus pass the knowledge down the generations. This is where humans have had the advantage. Knowledge we gain does not die out with each generation. We are able to retain it and build upon it, generation after generation. Whether this is simply due to lack of language or other effective means of communication, or whether their brains just don't allow them to absorb the knowledge from their parents, I don't know. But if other animals were able to effectively transmit knowledge to future generations, likely by now we'd have seen several intelligent species develop on this planet.
 
There was an episode of TNG where the crew members of the Enterprise were struck by some disease which caused them to de-evolve to earlier forms. Worf ended up as some sort of bi-pedal predator with scaly skin and venom glands. It looked NOTHING like a cat. So I don't know where you get all that particular bit of information, but based on that episode, it is wrong.

It was some sort of gene therapy that devolved people into evolutionary throwbacks. That episode also had Spot the cat turning into an iguana, and Lt. Barkley turning into a spiderlike creature! So I don't think that it neccesarily reflected immediate evolutionary ancestors. Also, I always thought the alien races in Star Trek reflected the various human races.

But back to the topic at hand, any aquatic creature is going to have difficulty. Not until they evolve to land forms will they have a chance, so I think dolphins, whales and octopi are out. Although I did watch a program about what creatures future evolution might produce, and octopi left the sea to become the dominant life on land. There were monkey -like octopi swinging from trees, as well as giant elephant type grazers.

I think creatures like raccoons and otters have the best chance - plus I think a diet high in seafood aids brain development.
 
Birds, and other animals as well, already have the capacity to problem solve. For example, I once read about a bird which noticed that fish tended to collect in areas where humans were throwing bread in the water. So it started stealing bread and putting it in the water itself, whereupon it caught more fish. I have personally observed my cats solve complex problems as well and come up with innovative solutions (sometimes to my complete mortification...damned cats! LOL).

The problem animals have is that for whatever reason, animals can't seem to teach such innovations to their young, and thus pass the knowledge down the generations. This is where humans have had the advantage. Knowledge we gain does not die out with each generation. We are able to retain it and build upon it, generation after generation. Whether this is simply due to lack of language or other effective means of communication, or whether their brains just don't allow them to absorb the knowledge from their parents, I don't know. But if other animals were able to effectively transmit knowledge to future generations, likely by now we'd have seen several intelligent species develop on this planet.

I remember something similar to your example of birds noticing more fish where people were giving bread crums. There was a case where a guy left a stick over a hole in the ice with a line with bait attached. He came back everytime to notice that fish were never on the line. He figured out what was going on when he saw a raven take the stick and pull up the line with the fish attached and steal the fish off of the line.
 
But back to the topic at hand, any aquatic creature is going to have difficulty. Not until they evolve to land forms will they have a chance, so I think dolphins, whales and octopi are out. Although I did watch a program about what creatures future evolution might produce, and octopi left the sea to become the dominant life on land. There were monkey -like octopi swinging from trees, as well as giant elephant type grazers.

I think creatures like raccoons and otters have the best chance - plus I think a diet high in seafood aids brain development.

The Future is Wild. I saw that too. It's likely that it would take that long for sentience to evolve in this scenario, because the homonids were the closest to sentience. Would the existence of humans perhaps inhibit the evolution of sentience too?
 
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