Land or Water: Where Does Technology-based Intelligence Thrive?

 The question of whether intelligent life is more likely to emerge on land or in water has intrigued scientists for a long time. A new study by Dr. Manasvi Lingam from Florida Institute of Technology offers a novel approach to address this question using Bayesian statistics.

“A Bayesian Analysis of Technological Intelligence in Land and Oceans,” a paper by Lingam and researchers from the University of Texas and Università di Roma, was published in the March edition of The Astrophysical Journal.

Humans are a classic example of the kind of technological intelligence that can profoundly sculpt the biosphere through purposeful activities and produce detectable signatures of their technology.

In the paper, the authors performed a Bayesian analysis of the probability of technologically intelligent species existing in land-based habitats and ocean-based habitats. It was found that ocean-based habitats should be more likely to host technological species, if all other factors are held equal, because ocean worlds are likely to be much more common....<<<Read More>>>...