Project Hail Mary

by Andy Weir

“Math is not thinking. Math is procedure. Memory is not thinking. Memory is storage. Thinking is thinking. Problem, solution. You and me think same speed. Why, question?” “Hmm.” I ponder it for a while. It’s a really good question. How come Rocky isn’t a thousand times smarter than me? Or a thousand times dumber? “Well … I have a theory for why we’re about the same intelligence. Maybe.” “Explain.” “Intelligence evolves to gives us an advantage over the other animals on our planet. But evolution is lazy. Once a problem is solved, the trait stops evolving. So you and me, we’re both just intelligent enough to be smarter than our planet’s other animals.” “We are much much smarter than animals.” “We’re as smart as evolution made us. So we’re the minimum intelligence needed to ensure we can dominate our planets.” He thinks it over. “I accept this. Still not explain why Earth intelligence evolve same level as Erid intelligence.” “Our intelligence is based on the animals’ intelligences. So what is animal intelligence based on? How smart do animals have to be?” “Smart enough to identify threat or prey in time to act.”