title: Extraterrestrial intelligence? Not likely.
abstract: The possibility that there exist extraterrestrial creatures with advanced intelligence is considered by examining major events in mammalian, primate, and human evolution on earth. The overwhelming evidence is that the evolution of intelligence in creatures elsewhere who have the capability to communicate with us is vanishingly small. The history of the evolution of advanced forms of life on this planet is so beset by adventitious, unpredictable events and multiple contingencies that the evolution of human-level intelligence is highly unlikely on any planet, including earth.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Peabody Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. devore@fas.harvard.edu
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: DeVore
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018559:Exobiology; D005118:Extraterrestrial Environment; D015186:Hominidae / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D019369:Life