Is this an intelligent life form?
An alien life form is found that has a pattern of stripes on its back. The pattern is black, red, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and magenta, black, and so on. It is found that for each series of different colored stripes the red is on average twice as large as the black, the yellow is on average three times as large as the black, the green is on average five times as large as the black, the cyan is on average seven times as large as the black, the blue is on average eleven times as large as the black, and the magenta is on average thirteen times as large as the black.
It is also found that these aliens have the five regular solids growing out of their skin in tiny form and the ratio between the wavelength of sound the two sexes make is on average pi.
It is found that these traits seem to be a result of sexual selection as the closer an individuals ratio between the colored stripes and the black stripe is to the sequence of prime numbers the more likely it is to find a mate, the more perfect the regular solids growing out of an individuals skin are the more likely it is to find a mate, and the closer the ratio between the wavelength of two individuals sounds is to pi the more likely they are to mate with each other. There are two different species of this life form; one in which the males have sound waves that are pi times as long as the females, and one in which the females have sound waves that are pi times as long as the males.
The life form is also found to have primitive tools and to manipulate its environment to make structures that have the sole purpose of being mating grounds.
Would this life form definitely qualify as an intelligent life form based on the information provided?
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/27706. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
It could easily be done with instinct, and not involve "intelligence" in any real way.
For instance the Golden Ratio is all over the place in plants and animals, but it doesn't mean any of them know what it means, or are able to control it.
These creatures don't sound like they have any control over their patterns or their vocalizations, meaning whether they are "prime" for getting a mate is all up to random chance.
Say one of the males has the ideal pattern and vocal modulation, it does its display, and the female just gets a switch flipped to trigger the mating mode.
Based on the evidence given, I would say instinct, not intelligence.
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