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82 have its value tested in the environment. High intelligence is not automatic.” Calvin argued that drastic climate changes in the past had profound effects on human evolution, including the development of the brain. SETI Institute Principal Investigator Emma Bakes drew optimistic implications from such events. A lack of environmental and thermodynamic stability may actively spark the formation of life and trigger the accelerated forma- tion of intelligent and robust life-forms that no longer depend on their environment, but shape it to their advantage. The more unstable the envi- ronment is, the greater the driving force toward diversity and high adaptive intelligence. Advanced life and civilization are here courtesy of disaster, devastation, and worldwide freeze-ups, commented Darling. Somewhere between the extremes must lie just the right level of environmental stress to push life forward at its maximum possible rate. This suggests that the types of brain that evolve elsewhere may be very specific to the histories of their environments. There may be a more ominous message: Growth in intelligence may have been driven by competition with other species. Shostak and science educa- tor Alex Barnett pointed out that Old World monkeys have much larger brains relative to their body size than monkeys in South America because the African simians were challenged more by predators than their cousins in the New World.” Intelligence doesn’t just happen through inevitable evolution; it is a response to pressure, and opportunity. In the past, Homo sapiens shared the Earth with other humanoid species. This claim once rested on the simultaneous presence of Neanderthals and modern humans until about 30,000 years ago. Now we know of others; an older branch of the hominid family known as Homo erectus still existed in Indonesia as recently as 27,000 years ago. The present phenomenon of a solitary human species on Earth may be more the exception than the tule.”’ Most startling were the dwarfed hominids whose remains were found on the Indonesian island of Flores. These miniature people shrank because of environmental circumstances until their average height was only a little over 1 meter. Although their brains were chimpanzee-sized, they walked erect and continued to employ the simple technologies of tool-making used by their larger ancestors. The little people remained in cultural and tech- nological stasis for thousands of years, until they were wiped out by unknown causes.”* These hobbit-sized creatures existed for millennia alongside Homo sapiens, possibly surviving until only 12,000 years ago. We have no evi- Probabilities: Intelligence Our Intelligent Companions