Best species to breed to intelligence
I've included more background below, but the TL;DR is that you're a lone immortal who's decided to breed some species of animal to a human-level intelligence (over the course of hundreds of thousands or millions of years). Which animal do you start with?
Qualities that make an animal a good choice:
- Should be found in Northern California (for plot reasons). Wild dogs would probably have survived humanity disappearing, but any great apes in zoos or labs will have died. If absolutely necessary, you can loosen this requirement, but you will have to explain how you transport a breeding population to Northern California on your own, and I would much prefer to stay close to the action.
- Easy to control the mating habits of, so that you can select good traits.
- Easy to keep fed.
- Minimal oversight required. You're only one person, and you're probably going to need to keep a population of at least a few thousand
- Fairly smart starting point. It's probably going to be easier to breed a horse to a human level of intelligence than a cockroach.
Feel free to add to or challenge some of these qualities if you believe there's a compelling reason. The primary metric is the feasibility of breeding it to a human level of intelligence in as short a time as possible.
Edit: my definition of "intelligence" is capable of building a huge number of supercomputers and programming them.
It's been nearly a year since all the humans on the planet mysteriously disappeared, leaving you alone in a decaying landscape. You are the only human left on earth, and you are immortal. There are a handful of tantalising clues scattered about labs in the San Francisco Bay Area. What few you can decipher point toward a massive puzzle too big to tackle on your own. You need other minds working on the problem, and the only way to get them is to make them: with biology. Knowing full well that it might take millions of years, you set out to selectively breed a new species to intelligence.
You don't need to eat or drink, although you do feel hungry and thirsty. You do need to sleep for at least a few hours each night. Psychologically you're fine, and even if you're a bit lonely, you're not going to go insane. Your memories do fade, but not past the point of a memory from five years ago or so. You can be wounded, but your wounds heal almost instantly. If a limb is severed, it dissolves and re-forms. No diseases can affect you, and physically you're a 25 year old in peak health. You're smart and well educated, but you aren't a true genius. Even if you want to, you cannot die.
Inspired by this fantastic answer: https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/a/15540/13378. There are a few other questions that ask about breeding animals to intelligence, but they are not framed in terms of the individual, nor do they ask about best choice of creature.
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/146557. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1 answer
Since you're in charge, the best way to go might just be squishy.
Cephalopods.:
nervous system of cephalopods is the most complex of the invertebrates
Best to work with a species that has huge potential. (Intelligence, manipulation of it's environment, etc..).
Their intelligence and natural inclinations could serve you well:
- Reproduction:
With brief times between reproductive cycles, many generations can flourish/participate in selective trials/then reproduce in comparativley short times compared to primates/trash pandas etc.
The majority of cephalopods do not provide parental care to their offspring, except, for example, octopus, which helps this organism increase the survival rate of their offspring
Play on the inclination to provide parental care - you've got information being passed from generation to generation. Species learning like humans - this only occured with speach and writing thus...
- Communication:
highly social creatures
We all know that they can change the patterns of color in their epidermis at-will, but they can simultaneously communicate in two conversations:
Caribbean reef squid can even discriminate between recipients, sending one message using color patterns to a squid on their right, while they send another message to a squid on their left
Perhaps learning to give each of their children what they need rather than a "one size fits all" parenting. #welladjustedoctopus
- Tool Use:
Opening jars/bottles etc is well-known, but:
Many make "fortresses:
deliberately place stones, shells and even bits of broken bottle to form a wall that constricts the aperture to the den
- Goal orientation:
all cephalopods are active predators with the possible exceptions of the bigfin squid and vampire squid
You give them objectives, they'll hunt them down and nail them for you - with the right training and the right behaviour-reward system. Sounds like a workforce of very capable Minions to me.
- Problem solving abilities:
They can:
open the latches on acrylic boxes in order to obtain the food inside. They can also remember solutions to puzzles and learn to solve the same puzzle presented in different configurations.
If it 'aint got tentacles it 'aint chilled.
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