Perhaps a world with abundant hydrothermal vents could accomplish this underwater? Especially if we imagine a different planet from ours, one with different ocean chemistry, gravity, UV exposure, et cetera. I often like to imagine something like this under Europa's ice crust, though admittedly that'd almost certainly be restricted to simple forms of life.
Part of this hypothetical is looking at the line between a creature's intelligence and the environmental limits that may act as choke points, like what you've described with fire. My basic argument is that given enough time I could conceive of a species which gained "superhuman" intelligence pre-technology who could have a tech-boom based on their unique environment. Just as humans at some point became smart enough to utilize our (perhaps more readily manipulated) environment. If nothing else, I couldn't rule it out. In fact it seems inevitable that intelligent life will always arise as a result of that specific threshold being crossed. It's unlikely that humans are the pinnacle, nor at the bottom.
Obviously it would be foolhardy to rule anything out. I’ve read that if the Earth’s gravity were slightly more, we would find it extremely difficult if not impossible to put anything into orbit, essentially trapping us on the planet. So, yes environmental conditions can be very limiting to a species on the path to technological development.
That's a great point! One crazy thing I think about with a hypothetical Europa species is how it might look at the cosmos. Under kilometers of ice they'd have no direct way to observe even the solar system. Imagine some Europa alien hypothesizing the existence of the Sun, pointing a device up through the ice and detecting not just our star, but a universe full of them. Who knows, maybe there are aliens out there as you described, just waiting in hopes that someone will someday find them, and whisk them off their planetary prison.
That’s an interesting hypothetical. I’m sure there are some short stories, or a Star Trek episode (there are literally hundreds of Star Trek episodes) that covers these concepts. Spock would say, ‘Fascinating’.
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u/CrazyCalYa 2d ago edited 2d ago
Perhaps a world with abundant hydrothermal vents could accomplish this underwater? Especially if we imagine a different planet from ours, one with different ocean chemistry, gravity, UV exposure, et cetera. I often like to imagine something like this under Europa's ice crust, though admittedly that'd almost certainly be restricted to simple forms of life.
Part of this hypothetical is looking at the line between a creature's intelligence and the environmental limits that may act as choke points, like what you've described with fire. My basic argument is that given enough time I could conceive of a species which gained "superhuman" intelligence pre-technology who could have a tech-boom based on their unique environment. Just as humans at some point became smart enough to utilize our (perhaps more readily manipulated) environment. If nothing else, I couldn't rule it out. In fact it seems inevitable that intelligent life will always arise as a result of that specific threshold being crossed. It's unlikely that humans are the pinnacle, nor at the bottom.