We are the most advanced species on this planet. At least that’s what we think about ourselves. Of course, if we take intelligence as a measurement mechanism, we should consider ourselves on the throne. The same goes for manipulation of materials, creation of new complicated things et cetera.
However, if we just stop and think about our weaknesses, our greed, our lack of empathy for the same species, not to mention for other species on this planet. And then obviously our lack of empathy and care for our planet. If we think about those (and I only named a few), then for sure we are NOT the most advanced species on this planet.
Nonetheless, let’s stick with the original premise of this article and hypothesize what would happen if another advanced or rather intelligently evolved species existed on this planet.
Homo Conflictus
If we just slightly think about this topic, we could easily conclude that two advanced species (like humans), could not coexist peacefully on the same planet.
Why, you may ask?
Well, the answer is in front of our eyes. Namely, we are one and only species. We are the same. We are Homo Sapiens. Yet, we are constantly at war with another humans. You name the reasons; religious, skin color, different ego, difference in political opinion, difference in anything….
We are fighting constantly with each other for all the ridiculous reasons.
Having that in mind, how can we even consider that two intelligent species could live seamlessly on this planet?
That is of course, presuming that another species would possess greedy-like attributes that we do. But even if another species would be completely peaceful monk-like animal – what would happen to them? Well people would probably destroy them. Not that it would be the first time for Homo Sapiens to completely destroy, kill and disassemble peaceful communities of other people and animals.
So, there is the first part of the answer – two advanced species would not be able to live peacefully together.
At least not with the current state of mind, (lack of) awareness and (no)consciousness that this species (Homo Sapiens) has.
Ok, but let’s see what could potentially happen.
Two species on the same planet?
Two advanced species should be smart enough not to attack each other. Like the mouse is smart enough not to attack tiger. Perhaps this comparison is silly as mouse is not led by intelligence but by survival instinct.
Advanced species as we know them (Homo Sapiens) have both intelligence and survival instinct, yet we’re witnessing the constant conflict on this planet. We almost never lived without wars as we wrote in one of our previous articles named : “Will we ever live in world without war?”
Ok, but let’s feed this hypothetical scenario. Let’s really try to imagine two similar and technologically advanced species on the same planet.
Shall we also hypothesize that they’d speak different languages, but they’d understand each other? Yes, we shall. We shall think about different potential scenarios of collaboration and non-collaboration between two species.
Breeding
Once upon a time, two advanced and intelligent species really did coexist on this planet. I am talking about us (Homo Sapiens) and Homo Neandertals. According to new research on objects found in Bulgaria, modern humans were present in Europe at least 46,000 years ago. That means that they coexisted with Neanderthals for a very long period. In Africa it’s even longer since they met there about 55,000 years ago.
Now, that’s interesting – we have real historic example of two species. So, what did they do together? Mostly they fought. A lot. Many historians actually state that Homo Sapiens with their better tools and weapons destroyed Neanderthals completely.
On the other hand, they also made love together. Yes, they bred (mate) together. And this breeding between two species, some authors say, is the cause of the extinction of Neanderthals. According to research where scientists analyzed Neanderthal and Denisovan blood groups, they found a set of genetic variants that would have made Neanderthal children vulnerable to a now-rare blood disorder, or “hemolytic disease of the fetus and new-born,” or HDFN. This disorder would have made it problematic for the affected generations to reproduce — cutting their bloodline short.
Interesting huh?
Could something similar happen in our imaginary hypothesis of two advanced and intelligent species on Earth? Probably yes. Depending of course if mating would be possible between species.
But in either way intercourse would happen between two species for sure. I mean humans already have intercourse with everything alive and non-alive on this planet. That being said, we could easily conclude that there would be weird love shenanigans between two species. Who knows, maybe they would create new poses and new ways of making love similarly like we talked in our article about humanity and sex robots.
Ok, moving on to other possible scenarios of two species living together on same planet. First let’s cover government.
Government
Now, this is a tough one. Namely, would two species organize themselves to have so called One World Government with one set of laws? Probably not. I mean – look at what is happening with humans only. We have hundreds of countries, religions, and governments. Some are getting along with each other while others are in constant conflict.
How could the government look like with two advanced species? I would say that each species would have completely separate governments with different ministries and different agencies. Nonetheless, I think they would agree to establish some kind of joint government body or agency with common goal of creating structure, collaboration, rules and trading between two species.
Perhaps they’d call that – Ministry of Interspecies Control or MIC.
But what would happen with voting? Probably they’d create separate voting systems for each species.
Wars
Well, this is an easy one. As mentioned previously – constant conflict seems inevitable. People are fighting constantly with each other. One nation attack another without any reason and so it goes for thousands of years. What could be different with the addition of new species in the game? Probably more wars, and more devastating wars.
That is if we frame our conclusion based on the current state of stupidity of human mind when it comes to conflicts and wars. If cohabitation of two species prolonged to several thousand years – perhaps the groups would learn to live with each other without need for constant wars and conflicts.
Now, one also needs to bear in mind the following; If one species would be peaceful by nature and wouldn’t want to invest in weapons then probably another species would destroy them very soon. Similarly, like it happened with Homo Sapiens vs Homo Neanderthals. In that case Sapiens had two biggest advantages:
- They gathered in bigger groups and collaborated to beat the enemy (in this case Neanderthals)
- They created smarter and better tools for conflict.
A similar scenario could happen now with two advanced species on Earth.
Mark Twain’s quote comes to mind as a great way to conclude this chapter before moving on to other possible ways of cohabitation of two species:
“God created war so that Americans would learn geography.”
Usage of technologies and common things like roads
Think about common roads, electricity grid, water supply, internet, money. Well, it would only make sense to have those things in common. Just imagine situation where we have 8 billion of Homo Sapiens and then also 8 billion of Homo Somethingus with every species creating their own roads. It would be a complete mess. It is already like that with only Homo Sapiens.
Nonetheless, if two species were in some kind of disagreement regarding which technology or method is better, then we could witness this duplication scenario. So double roads, double electricity and double internet.
Now, internet could be an interesting point of disagreement and conflict because hackers from one species could hack into systems of second species.
Oh, what a “wonderful” situation would that be.
Conclusion
It is rather hard to believe that two intelligent species could coexist on the same planet. Sure, one could use an argument of cetaceans (dolphins, whales) stating how they are extremely intelligent. And they really are, but in a different way. Namely, one could easily argue that their senses are far more advanced than ours. Due to their prime sense being auditory, cetaceans are accurately capable of projecting an auditory image directly to their fellow species.
So, for example, if a whale wanted to describe a fish to another whale (or dolphin), they would literally send the image in their mind. In really simple terms, they can effectively send what humans would describe as a holographic image to each other.
So, this is intelligence at its best.
However, in this article, we’re assuming two similarly advanced and intelligent species. Two species who could communicate with each other and two species who have advanced technology. And there is the main problem. Species, if technologically capable, would most certainly have different urges to destroy other species.
Perhaps, and hopefully, one day we will raise our consciousness enough as species to understand that greed & conflict is not the solution. Perhaps one day those desires and attributes of human race will be completely nonexistent.
Then, and only then, we will have scenario on Earth where two intelligent species could coexist peacefully.
