TOW #24: "What Makes an Alien Intelligent?"

If there are aliens out in space, why would we think they would be comparable to us?

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2014/04/what-makes-an-alien-intelligent.html

What if in our great search for other intelligent life, were being a bit... narrow-minded? In an article titled "What Maes an Alien Intelligent?", the author, David Berreby explores that question. He begins by referencing a new discovery of a possible "twin" of Earth only to question how NASA began that search, by which he introduces the idea of a different type of intelligence, maybe one different from the human view of intelligence. Then, Berreby brings in Acta Astronautica by Denise Herzing, a dolphin-behaviorist researcher. Herzing says that what NASA really needs to find new intelligence is not new technology or more advanced spacecrafts, but rather a different way of defining and measuring intelligence. Herzing has five ways of measuring intelligence: size of the organism's brain relative to the size of the rest of its body; how well it sends and receives information; how different each organism is from the other; "the complexity of the being's social life"; amount of interaction, particularly with members of other species. Herzing's list makes one wonder how intelligence was classified beforehand. Also, what if the last point, about amount interaction with other species, was zero for all other forms of life? Berreby points out that a lack of interspecific communication would make contact with other forms of life nearly impossible. Whether the search for new life will be successful or not is unknown, but Berreby's purpose is to convince the reader that it is "better to wrestle at the edges of comprehension" than to naïvley accept that all other species are like ours and that we should rethink how we search for other intelligent life. To accomplish his purpose, Berreby uses examples from experts, inclusive language, and rhetorical questioning. As previously mentioned, Berreby cites information from behaviorist researcher Denise Herzing, who is more credible on the subject of intelligence than Berreby himself. Additionally, the author uses "we" to unite readers against foreign intelligence so to speak. This creates a sense of us-versus-them, further emphasizes Berreby's idea that human intelligence (us) and alien intelligence (them) are to be measured differently. Lastly, Berreby uses a rhetorical question to lead into a quote from an Wallace Stevens, a poet. Overall, I believe Berreby showed why we need to change how we approach alien intelligence differently.