Is There an Argument That Dolphins Don't Have Technology?

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Language is a natural thing to ize when moving toward technology, in terms of alian civilization. I don't think any of us would be particularly surprised if we discovered technological octopus like aliens? No, there's no reason to think it. It has to be through, through opposible funds. You could imagine something like a starfishwwith hundreds of little, hundreds of little stubby fingers, e turning driver. Wa w, i do for a living is anything we don't get tested, but some daywe were hopeful.

If extraterrestrial life is out there — not just microbial slime, but big, complex, macroscopic organisms — what will they be like? Movies have trained us to think that they won’t be that different at all; they’ll even drink and play music at the same cafes that humans frequent. A bit of imagination, however, makes us wonder whether they won’t be completely alien — we have zero data about what extraterrestrial biology could be like, so it makes sense to keep an open mind. Arik Kershenbaum argues for a judicious middle ground. He points to constraints from physics and chemistry, as well as the tendency of evolution to converge toward successful designs, as reasons to think that biologically complex aliens won’t be utterly different from us after all.

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Arik Kershenbaum received his Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology and Ecology from the University of Haifa. He is currently College Lecturer and Director of Studies at Girton College, University of Cambridge. He is the author of The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal About Aliens — and Ourselves.

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