What are the possible ways of explaining the limits in cognitive abilities of evolution driven species?

For a story, I need to find a way to justify the limited cognitive capacities of an entire race that thrives on biomass, capable of eating anything that is inherently biological.

This race is driven by the constant need of improvement, for that, they can evolve pretty quickly by trying to copy other species' DNA, and by pretty quickly we're talking about a matter of a few generation before the trait starts appearing.

They cannibalize, simply because of two reasons, they don't have the abilities to understand the risks, their 'hunger' for biomass and lack of cognitive abilities actually trumps one their aversion to the practise, and since their DNA is everchanging, the risk in itself is lower than any normal race.

They are also extremely short-lived and reproduce in a manner similar to cloning, since, depending on their current DNA set, they could make eggs, breed with another specie or even one of their own. But their instinct is to overwrite any DNA that isn't theirs if their reproduction's method involves another individual.

The problem is, in order to make the fact that they're not simply enslaving the other races and breed them for food due to their capabilities, they simply lack intelligence and are driven by instincts. But in such an evolutionary mindset, a outcome like this over thousands of generations seems unlikely, even downright impossible.

So is there any way to justify this ?

posted almost 5 years ago

Fireww‭

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