Intelligent beings part-1

I wonder what If any intelligent being lives underground in soil, advanced same as us
what would there

  1. Morphology, Interesting features, would there be 6th sense?
  2. Type of communication (since there is no light inside)?
  3. Mode of reproduction, Mating rituals?
  4. If they civilized make cities like us then what could you imagine in their cities?
  5. What technologies would they be building?
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earthworm

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Yeah I have written this by keeping earthworm in mind

Underground rodents becoming too adapted and overpowering humans, everything other than level of intellect stays the same, but a single squick will terrify scarce surviviours.

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According to Scott Adams, we will be kidnapped by evil squirrels and forced to work in their nut mines

https://assets.amuniversal.com/c55671209d44012f2fe500163e41dd5b

Rodents do seem like the most likely successor to humans. They have most of the same traits as primates and seem even more adaptable.

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I think naked mole-rats may be candidates to evolve into such a creature.:wink:

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Nice thought problem. Sound/vibration, chemosensation, and some sort of non-light sensitivity to electromagnetism seem appealing as channels of underground communication. Since mobility is limited underground, intelligent (or, let’s say, social computation) activity would seem to be limited to tunnel-builders or to networks of sessile organisms (plants, fungi). Termites, ants, or as-yet-poorly-characterized ecological networks seem to be good contenders.

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Slime molds might be good candidates, although they don’t build much… :-)

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An interesting thought. Termites, and other social insects offer a model. Without light, communication, many behaviors would need to be governed by either smell (pheromones) or sound. If we imagine human - like organisms living underground, they would need those abilities, along with the dexteral means to consider what they ‘need’ and to construct complex actions. The sense of sight might be reduced, unless the organisms needed to venture above ground to meet their needs/wants. Mating rituals would be based on smell or sound, and the technologies would likely be also based on those criteria. What’s the point of Architecture or Art if they can’t see them? Perhaps the sense of touch would create Architecture/Art that humans cannot appreciate? Depending on their metabolism, the cities would be governed by means we could not understand. David Niven, creator of the Pierson’s Puppeteers (Ringworld series) speculated that their cities might be constrained by heat - as social beings, their accumulated heat would necessitate some means of loosing that heat. Really, it’s endless, but fascinating!

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@mamestraconfigurata Again, I consider what amazing, strange beings are naked mole rats: curiously long-lived and highly socialized culture and society ( seemingly matrilineal?). Strangely resistant to diseases of old age and Draw dropping Adaptations not seen in many other animals. Plus, they have (kind of) “hands”.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_mole-rat

(And, don’t point and call them ugly ! Every time my one finger points at something else, 3 fingers are pointed back at me)
:stuck_out_tongue:

PS… frankly, I’m enchanted. I may want to be reincarnated as a naked mole-rat. (Well, maybe the food doesn’t sound that good, but likely the food was not that enticing for early hominids either).

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Intelligent naked mole rats might realize they’re naked and start wearing tiny mining coveralls. Not sure they would need them, but tiny mining helmets could be advisable.

If humans ever colonize Mars, we’ll probably be living in underground tunnels somewhat like mole rats.

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yeah! they are smart! they can solve mazes too lol

i vote for slime molds!!

You almost had me as a convert. Naked mole rats are pretty cool. The cancer resistance and ability to get along with very low oxygen are amazing adaptations. However, the wiki article did mention they are coprophagous. That is a big turn off for me. I can’t imagine any coprophagous animal founding a great civilization.

I’ve often tried to imagine what my dog would consider high art. Certain smells and sounds seem to fascinate him. Not just the other dog and prey ones. On the other hand, he seems oblivious to most visual stimuli. Would a highly evolved canine consider something that stinks and sounds like a harmonica to be high art?

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There is a CGI animated show called “The Future is Wild” where they semi-scientifically speculated on lie would evolve in the far distant future. One of my favorites was the “'slithersucker” is a predatory mycetozoan slime mold native to the Northern Forest of Novopangea, 200 million AD, in The Future is Wild"

It is kind of a jaguar level predator.

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Naked mole rats will hunt down all other undergroud rodents or will prevent their social acivities, so they’ll be the only underground rodents with society.

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That moment will then become their Garden of Eden story.

Or, suppose everything we think we know about the interior of the earth is wrong (since we haven’t actually been there to see for ourselves), and instead, Jules Verne was right in his Journey to the Center of the Earth.

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Human’s have much more than 6 senses.

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I read a science fiction story once where the interior of the earth was inhabited by very dense metallic beings who moved freely through their hot dense environment, including an intelligent race that had just begun their early efforts at space exploration. They were very rueful and chagrined when they realized their emergence from the planet interior to the surface had vaporized all life on the planet’s surface.

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