Are Homo Sapiens really the smartest species on Earth, and if so, is this sufficient to ensure its long‐ term survival?

Submitted by: Andrew Jara Submitted to: Heidi White Course: AST 251H1 Due Date: March 12, 2013

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As time passes, the Earth and all its inhabitants grow older, one must ask that as the number of inhabitants are increasing and the amount of resources decreasing, whether or not the human race will be able to withstand extinction. The parameters of human intelligence can be used to define and determine the possibility of this outcome. Humans are believed to have the title of being the most dominant and intelligent species on the face of the Earth, but there is much competition for that title today and arguments arise within the scientific community. Humans believe that they are separated from all other species based on the concept of intelligence and how they have used intelligence to their advantage to create language, technology and many other things to ultimately establish themselves as a successful species. In order to actually prove that humans rightfully deserve that title, one must delve into the debate of intelligence to clarify the meaning and understanding of intelligence. This will provide evidence to the argument on whether or not the human species will be viable in the long-term. In the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, intelligence is defined as the ability to collect and apply certain knowledge and information from the external environment to different situations1. Although this is a brief and vague definition, certain scientists such as Howard Gardner postulates that intelligence is a complex topic because humans have the ability to use a wide range of different intelligences in life. This is known as the theory of multiple intelligences, for example someone being able to learn a language and not being able to learn how to play a musical instrument2. Debates arise as scientists attempt to disprove that humans are not the smartest species on the planet and will endure the same fate as previous dominant inhabitants of the Earth, such as dinosaurs that have been extinct for many years. This paper will attempt to answer the question of humans being the smartest species on earth and provide evidence to ensure their own long-term survival by overcoming natural and selfmade disasters through the evaluation of humanity’s evolution and intelligence.

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In order to quantify intelligence, one must incorporate multiple methods that scientists have posed as a result of its complexity. Intelligence can be categorized as a cognitive process for reasoning, problem solving, and learning. Due to the complexity of these cognitive processes, they are not based solely on one thing, but instead they must incorporate cognitive functions such as perception, attention, memory, language, or planning in order to carry out the specific process and action3. One must understand the underlying brain mechanisms that carry out each of these processes because the brain is known to be the central processing center of the human body, where it relays, stores info and communicates with other networks within the brain3. This is where intelligence arises! Sternberg believes that intelligence can be divided into 3 subsections, known as analytical, creative and practical intelligence. Analytical intelligence contains the ability to analyze different things and compare their similarities and differences. Creative intelligence measures the ability of a human to create new objects both physically and mentally based on higher mental processes. Practical intelligence depicts the ability to cope and overcome set problems found in everyday life using problem solving techniques such as changing oneself, the external environment, or finding a different environment to fulfill one’s essential needs and desires4. Also, recently studies have been conducted on the cerebral cortex and other areas of brain folding and results prove that there is a positively correlated increase between surface area and intelligence6. Thus, intelligence is ultimately a complex multiple cognitive process that requires multiple methods to fulfill. It requires the action and cooperation of many different areas of the brain due to the fact that there are different types of intelligence that determine their function on the basis of different scenarios posed by the external environment and by everyday life itself. Since our brain is the main link to our intelligence, one may assume that due to our overly advanced network of processing and relaying information, brain size would be

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proportional to body size (brain-body size relationship), but that’s not the case. The encephalization quotient is derived from the brain-body size relationship and is a measure of brain size that calculated through the ratio between the actual brain mass and estimated brain mass of that same species. This is believed to define the intelligence of the species5. Other markers that help quantify intelligence based on the demonstration of human dominance include advanced communication, engineering of technology, higher-order mental processes and the ability to participate in evolution and adaptation. These are all qualities that correlate with high intelligence, creating an improvement in the sustainability of life. Humans have managed to establish different types of communication amongst its own race through the use of their intelligence such as the creation and vocalization of a man-made language with different dialects and the ability to communicate with other species such as animals through the use of training, visual stimuli and hand gestures without the use of conventional communication. The generation of technology has expanded our general knowledge of the functionality of the universe and its scientific background. Humans have been able to engineer high-tech objects to improve our life and essentially make life easier. Based on brain structure and functionality, humans are the only species that contain a highly developed frontal lobe that is capable of higher-level mental processing. It gives humans the ability to solve complex problems using planning, reasoning, judgment and controlling of impulses7. All these qualities have essentially allowed us to evolve and adapt as a growing species to inhabit many areas of the Earth proving that we are strong and fit enough to survive. This places us on the top of the hierarchy spectrum of intelligence and since humans cannot go up any further on this scale, this poses a problem within our species as competition arises between humans for survival as well as the competition against bacteria, which cause diseases.

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On the other hand, humans are not a perfectly created species as they lack some essential characteristics and abilities to achieve long-term survival. This deficiency is where human intelligence plays its greatest role to compensate for our shortcomings. These characteristics that humans lack such as small body size, high reproduction rate, exponential growth and being a generalist are found in those species that were successful at long-term survival, even through extinction8. A small body size correlates with less exposure to harm, increased genetic diversity and population size and essentially less food and resources. High reproduction rates increase the amount of viable offspring produced and is based on body size. A small body size as stated previously enables an organism to increase reproduction, thus allowing fast adaptation and evolution to new environmental stimuli. Exponential growth allows for increased variations in the gene pool and ultimately increases the survival of the organisms. Organisms that are generalists are able to adapt to many environments and eat different foods in order for survival, as they do not depend on one environment and its resources. These characteristics ultimately define the concept of a successful species. Extinction is a global phenomenon that humans are trying to overcome as previous inhabitants of the Earth failed to. Extinction is known as the elimination of an organism or a species caused by either natural or self-made catastrophic events9. Mass extinctions are events that are caused due to an extinction of an enormous number of species during a small time period10. There have been 5 mass extinctions in Earth’s history: Ordovician-Silurian, Late Devonian, Permian, Triassic-Jurassic and Cretaceous-Tertiary10. The Cretaceous-Tertiary (most recent) and the Permian mass extinctions were the 2 greatest mass extinctions that had the greatest effect on the Earth by wiping out more than half of its inhabiting species. The Permian mass extinction is also known as “The Great Dying” because of the fact that about 96% of the inhabiting population was killed. Although substantial amounts of species were killed the remaining 4% that were alive produced all the life that is found on Earth today10.

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This means that even though great amounts of species were killed off by the catastrophic events, some were able to successfully survive due to their ability to adapt. Some examples of these extraordinary species that were able to overcome extinction were insects (cockroaches), various species of fish (mummichog), branchiopods (lingula) and extremophiles (tardigrade)
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. Each of the above species has the required characteristics that enable them to successfully

survive an extinction event. The cockroach is able to regenerate its own limbs, survive without water for weeks and stop breathing for over 40 minutes11. The mummichog is able to survive in many different water habitats and adapt to environments very quickly because of their great genetic diversity11. The lingula is able to dig underground during catastrophic times due to their small body size11. The tardigrades are able to survive any type of environment. They do not need water to live and cope with this by decreasing their metabolism11. These are attributes to what make these species successful, as they are able to overcome extreme events that others cannot endure. With respect to humans, we do not contain these specific abilities to become a successful species as those listed above, but their success can be based on their intelligence. Today’s society has used human intelligence to create mechanisms in which climate changes can be monitored and the creation of vaccines and cures to diseases to cease the formation of epidemics such as the use of penicillin in surgical infections14. This supports the idea that with the use of intelligence, humans are able to create complex medicinal drugs and antibiotics through research and testing to help ensure long-term survival. In contrast with this concept, intelligence has also played a detrimental role in our society. Increasing knowledge and technology has caused wars that have been waged over different concepts such as religion, cultural diversity and natural resources. Recently there has been an establishment of biochemical nuclear warfare, which poses a great risk towards our extinction. The increase in technology has also produced many negative environmental effects such as the release of

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pollutants into the atmosphere from mechanical vehicles and from industrial centers, which are warming the ozone due to the increase of the greenhouse gas effect. These examples are all related to self-made disasters that put the human species at risk for extinction, but can be altered through man-made changes in society. The exponential growth of our species is causing a substantial decrease in natural resources available that are vital to our long-term survival. Trouble is brewing due to our lack of awareness and willingness to acknowledge that humanity resides on a living organism, which is not a renewable resource. Humanity’s attempts to adapt and survive are destroying the host on which they subsist. Time will not allow for the discovery of sustainable and alternate resources. There are also methods of extinction in which humans do not have any control over and are considered to be natural disasters. These natural disasters are created by the destabilization of the environmental climate and cause floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, eruptions of volcanoes. These are not as detrimental as the self-made examples as they tend to have less of an extinctive effect on the human species, unless its strength increases to cause detrimental effects on a worldwide scale. Natural disasters tend to cause more of a localized effect on a community or civilization and its surrounding environment. Other natural disasters that are found to have a worldwide effect such as a meteoroid or asteroid coming in contact with the Earth would be an example of a mass extinction event. If a catastrophic event were to happen on the Earth today, majority of the human species would not be able to survive due to the lack of resources on this planet to sustain and overcome this extinction. For example, if an asteroid was to collide with the Earth the aftermath would cause dust and debris to fill the air, occurrences of earthquakes, tsunamis and hurricanes, acid rain, ozone destruction and temperature increases due to greenhouse gases12,
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. These effects alone would make life inevitably difficult for humans to overcome. If

humans are able to construct a plan to deviate from either self-made or natural disasters, it is

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inevitable that this planet will eventually succumb to its destruction. This would refute the topic about the long-term survival of humans based on the fact that even though humans are the dominant species on the planet, their intelligence on Earth would not be sufficient to endure a catastrophic event on this Earth, but this does not mean the human species cannot survive elsewhere. The only way for survival would be to move to another place/planet that could be inhabited by humans with solely relying on the use of their intelligence and increasing technological advancements such as research for life on Mars. Mars is the only planet in the solar system with the essential elements of life in order to sustain life, such as chemical and heat energy, but it lacks the availability of liquid water, essential for humanity’s survival15. The cognitive ability of a human defines his/her intelligence and plays a major role in aiding their long-term survival. Intelligence creates the possibility of humans becoming a successful species through the works of technology and will enable them to have the ability to create long-term sustainable life on another planet, as the destruction of our planet is inevitable. Humans have much to learn about how to achieve long-term survival on other planets and in order to do that they must increase their advancements in technology to comprehend and make this goal attainable. It is possible to endure long-term survival on Earth unless a catastrophic event, such as a mass extinction was to occur. The aftermath, including the environmental consequences and limited amount of natural resources that are essential for life would prove to be unsustainable for us to inhabit. It would take a long period of time for things to get back to normal so that humans could live regularly, but in that time period, human life would not be able to survive. Overall, the only chance at humanity’s long-term survival is ultimately based on the intelligence that can be generated and used to overcome obstacles that pose a problem to their existence and to lead to their establishment as a dominant and successful species.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Intelligence. 2013. In Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved February 24, 2013, from 2. Moursund, D.G. (1999). Project-based Learning Using Information Technology. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Eugene, Oregon: ISTE. http://otec.uoregon.edu/intelligence.htm Dialogues Clin Neurosci. Human Intelligence and Brain Networks. 2010 December; 12(4): 489–501. The NIH Record. What does it mean to be intelligent. 1999 June; 51(12). G.Rieke. "Natural Sciences 102: Lecture Notes: Emergence of Intelligence" http://ircamera.as.arizona.edu/NatSci102/NatSci102/lectures/intelligence.htm Haier, R.J., Jung, R.E., Yeo, R.C., Head, K. and Alkired, M.T. (2004): Structural brain variation and general intelligence. NeuroImage Vol. 23, Issue 1, September 2004, Pages 425-433 Stuss, D.T., Gallup, GG et al. Brain (2001) 124 (2): 279-286. Hone, Dr. Dave. “How to survive mass extinction”, The Guardian. 8 Sept. 2012. Web. 27 Feb.2013. http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/lostworlds/2012/sep/20/dinosaurs-fossils http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intelligence

9. Extinction. 2013. In Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved February 24, 2013, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/extinction 10. Mass extinction. 2013. In Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved February 24, 2013, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mass-extinction 11. Langdon, L. 5 Animals that will most likely survive the apocalypse. Environmental Graffiti. Feb 24, 2013. http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/animals/news-top-5-

animals-most-likely-survive-apocalypse 12. Toon O., Morrision D., Turco R.P. and Covey C. (1997) 'Environmental perturbations caused by the impacts of asteroids and comets', Reviews of Geophysics, vol 35, no.1, 41-78, Feb 2013. 13. Kring D.A., Melosh H.J. and Hunten D.M (1995) 'Possible climate perturbations produced by impacting asteroids and comets', Meteoritics Vol 30, No.5 530 14. Lockwood J.S. et al. (1944) ‘The use of Penicillin in Surgical Infections’, Annals of Surgery, 120(3). 311-340. 15. Bennett, J. O., and G. S. Shostak. Life in the universe. 2nd. San Francisco: AddisonWesley Longman, 2007. Pg 279-281.

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