Could intelligent life arise around deepsea hydrothermal vents? -- Anon Guest
Intelligent life is very egocentric when theorising about other intelligent life. They imagine distant worlds like their own, with lifeforms possessing body patterns like their own. They don't often look much further than their own evolutionary path to pat themselves on the back and say, Yes. Aliens will be a lot like us.
The scientists of Earth frequently ignore the intelligent life already present around them. Cetaceans and octopi are examples of deep sea life already present. Especially the octopi.
Cephalopods in aquariums and laboratories have wants, the ability to plan, and the skills to fulfil those plans. People only hear about the fun bits, like a cephalopod learning the routines of the night staff so it could sneak out of its tank and steal treats. Nobody ever considers that they should really work on a means of communication since the planning is more than enough evidence of cognition.
Then again, Humans have always equated intelligence with the ability to follow orders. A smart canine can understand two hundred words, but nobody has figured out what an octopus understands.
There are worlds that are balls of ice, with oceans protected by that frozen shell, heated by volcanic activity under those motionless waves. There may or may not be light to see with, but there will be ways to sense the environment. There will be ways to communicate.
Somewhere, under the ice, near one of the many sources of heat, minerals, and less intelligent life forms also known as food. Somewhere, there are fish. Somewhere, there are crustaceans. Somewhere, there are octopi.
Somewhere, something remarkably like an octopus has perceived the sky break through tidal forces and thereby glimpsed the greater universe beyond.
Copernicus...
Somewhere, another makes observations and notes them down.
Galileo...
Somewhere, more and more of them reveal the mechanics of all they can not yet confirm.
Newton. Einstein. Hawking...
Of course, they theorise about the nature of alien life. How to find it. How to look for it. What it will look like when they meet.
Naturally, to them, alien life looks like very weird octopi.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / thomaseder]
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