> even if some other intelligent species would exist, maybe they would not have the same need to communicate, the same need or will to travel, the same need or will to innovate, etc.
I think this is unlikely. It seems to me that some amount of curiosity would be a prerequisite for being able to make discoveries that lead to technological progress. Although I suppose it is possible such progress could be made through some kind of evolutionary mechanism as opposed to individual intellect.
But why would an intelligent species have to make any discoveries, or progress in any way? Maybe they spend all of their intelligence designing birdsongs, until some random natural event drives them extinct. Far from an alien psychology, humanity would be like that if you took away a fraction of the people with the greatest curiosity.
The way I see it, our curiosity and desire to explore is a reflection through our instincts of basic biological imperatives. Even bacteria "want" to explore, find new territories where there might be undiscovered resources, etc. Exploration is what helps a species survive long-term. We're smart, but the things we instinctively want are still a reflection of the basic things that any life form wants and needs.
I don't think you could have a super-advanced species that didn't want to explore, reproduce, wasn't curious. You couldn't have an advanced species that just went about doing the same thing forever. They wouldn't be an advanced species. They'd be some dead branch of the evolutionary tree that got pruned long ago, in all likelihood. Intelligence is fundamentally curious, just like lifeforms, even bacteria, if you squint hard enough, are "curious".
Bacteria don't want to explore, they float around, and occasionally do gradient climbing to navigate to good chemicals. That's an example of a pro-survival technique that works very well, but is not going to lead to anything better. Every living thing on Earth except for people is an example of a living thing with some degree of intelligence, or at least beneficial control, but that does not have scientific progress.
Amoebas can propel themselves, and if you drop them in one corner of a lake, I can guarantee you that they will explore it to find food and reproduce.
Bacteria don't have scientific progress, but because they reproduce rapidly, they also evolve very fast compared to us. Some of them can even exchange genetic material with each other (!). This is a way for them to exchange "knowledge" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilus).
I can guarantee you that if you observed amoebas under a microscope for a while, you would realize that these are more sophisticated little machines than you think.
> "largest genomes belongs to a very small creature, Amoeba dubia. This protozoan genome has 670 billion units of DNA, or base pairs. The genome of a cousin, Amoeba proteus, has a mere 290 billion base pairs, making it 100 times larger than the human genome."
> But why would an intelligent species have to make any discoveries
Intelligence seems to be rather expensive thing to evolve and maintain. In biology, something that’s expensive has to translate to fitness advantage. Human mind gave humans an ultimate advantage when it comes to survival. All doom and gloom aside, we’re the only species that could potentially survive total annihilation of the planet. It’s not inconceivable that people could design the technology to sustain a civilization in space.
That’s why I think any intelligent species use their mind to build things and expand their knowledge about the universe. That’s the “purpose” of having intelligence.
Because discoveries are useful. If the collective reason for your species' existence is writing birdsong, you're going to want agriculture to ensure people can eat, medicine to prevent them from dying, and electricity to make rad synthetic birdsong dubstep remixes. Tech solves problems, and everyone has problems. Doesn't mean you need to leave the solar system though.
How is this hypothetical species going to discover any medicine if they spend all their time writing birdsongs? Any individual with a slightly lower proclivity to write birdsongs will be evicted from the gene pool with great prejudice, so there is no chance that anyone will ever be born with the desire to spend a whole hour thinking about something else. Again, if this seems unrealistic, just imagine humanity with the mean "art vs. programming" balance of desires shifted a little bit towards art. There are many people who do not care at all about doing the kinds of things that lead to solving problems, and it is easy to imagine a species that is just them.
Because at some point you run out of food, and if you write birdsong in spite of that you just die out. It may be possible but its not much an effective long term strategy. Too stupid to survive doesn't earn a lot of marks towards being an intelligent species.
Individuals with a desire to improve their survivability being evicted from the gene pool is the opposite of how natural selection works. Humans would still invent things even if painting gave everyone erotic pleasure.
An I'm suggesting that a population that dies out before accomplishing any intellectual achievements wasn't all that intelligent or make sense as a species. How a species would appear that decides to forego its basic needs in favor of making art is beyond me.
A species that spends its time making birdsongs is effectively just a dumber version of birds.
> Evolution doesn't look ahead to avoid dead ends.
It does though, by many metrics. Many steps of evolution are not just the outright outcomes, but traits that make it easier for competitive adaptations to develop later on. That is, natural selection works on multiple levels of derivatives of fitness scores. Humanity's intelligence is built on top of everything else, and is often overruled, by base survival instincts.
I think this is unlikely. It seems to me that some amount of curiosity would be a prerequisite for being able to make discoveries that lead to technological progress. Although I suppose it is possible such progress could be made through some kind of evolutionary mechanism as opposed to individual intellect.