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Future Minds 87 Nothing in natural selection safeguards human beings from vanishing in the future or evolving into creatures of less intelligence. —Edward Harrison, 1989*? We are not the ultimate achievement of evolution, observed de Duve, only a transient stage. It would be surprising if, in the future development of life on Earth, vertical evolution toward greater complexity did not con- inue to take place, perhaps leading to more intelligent beings. Such beings could arise by further extension of the human branch of life, but they do not have to; there is plenty of time for a humanlike adventure o start all over again from another branch and perhaps go further. “Waiting in the wings of the theater of consciousness,” Morris proposed, “are other minds stirring, poised on the threshold of articulation.”*” The complete disappearance of humans from the Earth would permit he eventual evolution of some other species having a human level of intel- igence, although this might take tens or hundreds of millions of years. Brin suggested that the interval between the Cretaceous catastrophe and the present is a reasonable estimate for the time it takes to develop a civiliza- ion from ancestors as modest as the first mammals: 65 million years.*! A dinosaur about the height and weight of a human once may have been well on its way to developing intelligence. Known to science as saurornithoides, these creatures stood on their hind legs and had “hands” with opposable thumbs, permitting a precision grip. Their brain mass was a little smaller than that of a human infant.*? Like most other dinosaurs, saurornithoides vanished in the extinction event now believed to have been caused by an asteroid striking the Earth. Dale Russell of the Canadian National Museum posed a hypothetical question: If the dinosaurs had survived, what would they look like now? He produced a scale model of what a dinosaur called Stenonychosaurus might have become: humanoid, with an upright posture, a large head, and intelligent eyes. If we reran history without the great extinction of 65 million years ago, Earth’s masters would not be human. However, high intelligence still might exist in what Darling called “this slightly disturbing form.”* Humanizing Monkey Brains Future humans might keep themselves in front by self-initiated improve- ment. Our growing command of the genome could lead to the enhance- ment of our mental capabilities. Future Minds