the fitness functions for natural organisms do not select only for intelligence and its precursors.13 Even environments in which organisms with superior information processing skills reap various rewards may not select for intelligence, because improvements to intelligence can (and often do) impose significant costs, such as higher energy consumption or slower maturation times, and those costs may outweigh whatever benefits are gained from smarter behavior. Excessively deadly environments also reduce the value of intelligence: the shorter one’s expected lifespan, the less time there will be
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