ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to examine the issue and critique the conventional theoretical frameworks which make the possibility of intelligent species seem outlandish. It discusses interactions and relations among two biological processes which are directly or indirectly responsible for the existence of intelligent agents on earth— learning and evolution—and show how these interactions and relations provide an explanation for the “character” and capabilities of intelligent animals, and of the evolving species they comprise. The chapter explores the term “intelligence” to refer to the ability of a system to devise new adaptations to novel circumstances. The important point is that successive layers of variation and selection provide the system with greater degrees of adaptability and give it the ability to produce more impressive displays of learning, learning-to-learn, intelligence, and insight. There is an oft-acknowledged analogy between the operation of natural selection in evolving species, and learning through reinforcement in intelligent animals.
