Extraterrestrial Civilizations - Isaac Asimov [9]
Well, perhaps!
The fact is, though, that we don’t have any evidence of the dolphin’s philosophy of life. The lack of that evidence may be entirely our fault, but there’s nothing we can do about it. Without evidence, there is no way of reasoning usefully. We can look for the evidence and someday, perhaps, find it, but until then, we can’t reasonably assign human intelligence to the dolphin.
Besides, even if our definition of human intelligence on the basis of fire is unfair and self-serving on some abstract scale, it will prove useful and reasonable for the purposes of this book. Fire sets us on a road that ends with a search for extraterrestrial intelligence; without fire we would never have made it.
The extraterrestrial intelligences we are looking for, then, must have developed the use of fire (or, to be fair, its equivalent) at some time in their history, or, as we are about to see, they could not have developed those attributes that would make it possible for them to be detected.
CIVILIZATION
Throughout the history of life, species of living creatures have made use of chemical energy by the slow combination of certain chemicals with oxygen within their cells. The process is analogous to combustion, but is slower and much more delicately controlled. Sometimes use is made of energy available in the bodies of stronger species as when a remora hitches a ride on a shark, or a human being hitches an ox to a plow.
Inanimate sources of energy are sometimes used when species allow themselves to be carried or moved by wind or by water currents. In those cases, though, the inanimate source of energy must be accepted at the place and time that it happens to be and in the amount that happens to exist.
The human use of fire involved an inanimate source of energy that was portable and could be used wherever desired. It could be ignited or extinguished at will and could be used when desired. It could be kept small or fed till it was large, and could be used in the quantities desired.
The use of fire made it possible for human beings, evolutionarily equipped for mild weather only, to penetrate the temperate zones. It made it possible for them to survive cold nights and long winters, to achieve security against fire-avoiding predators, and to roast meat and grain, thus broadening their diet and limiting the danger of bacterial and parasitic infestation.
Human beings multiplied in number and that meant there were more brains to plan future advances. With fire, life was not quite so hand-to-mouth, and there was more time to put those brains to work on something other than immediate emergencies.
In short, the use of fire put into motion an accelerating series of technological advances.
About 10,000 years ago, in the Middle East, a series of crucial advances were made. These included the development of agriculture, herding, cities, pottery, metallurgy, and writing. The final step, that of writing, took place in the Middle East about 5,000 years ago.
This complex of changes stretching over a period of 5,000 years introduced what we call civilization, the name we give to a settled life, to a complex society in which human beings are specialized for various tasks.
To be sure, other animals can build complex societies and can be composed of different types of individuals specialized for different tasks. This is most marked in such social insects as bees, ants, and termites, where individuals are in some cases physiologically specialized to the point where they cannot eat, but must be fed by others. Some species of ants practice agriculture and grow small mushroom gardens, while others herd aphids; still