> interconnected intelligence without technology like in Avatar
I have a feeling that the Avatar scenario is no more likely than tall blue-skinned humanoids. Our notion of intelligence pretty much defines it as collection of thought processes that end up manifesting themselves in the development of technology. Dolphins may be extremely intelligent on some scale unknown to us, but we don't observe them building submarines or decoding radio signals, so we don't consider them to be human-level intelligent. Similarly, to them, we may appear as these strange shore-bound small amphibious quadrupeds who carry various strange amulets on their bodies with which they do various strange things, all of them being of completely no use or interest to an average cetacean. I'm probably exaggerating cetacean intelligence a fair bit, but I just wanted to illustrate how closely our definition of intelligence is bound to the availability/use of technology.
Yes, also yes to the exaggeration bit, but intelligence is just, well, intelligence. A complex "brain" can be about emotional depth, about being able to communicate that emotional complexity, it can be about processing senses in amazing ways or many other functions we may not even think of. That is just the complexity of a certain nervous system though, not intelligence per se, for us what matters is indeed problem solving capabilities which lead to technology.
Sure emotional intelligence may be more important than most of us realize (the theory of mind, the ability to "read" other people's thoughts, sometimes also more cynically called Machiavellian intelligence, is thought by some to be the primary driver behind the development of sentience in humans), but I was developing the following thought experiment:
Suppose bottlenose dolphins have an uncanny ability to "read minds" and interpret thoughts and emotions of other bottlenose dolphins (but only of individuals of their own species -- not of porpoises, humans, etc.) to the same or even better extent than we humans can read minds of other humans, but due to the accidental specifics of their bodily layout and environment (no limbs with which to grasp and manipulate objects, unsuitable environment for the use of fire) are unable to develop any semblance of technology. What would those "super-dolphins" look like to us? I have a feeling they would still look a lot like dolphins, and we, without some very specific/expensive/targeted research, probably would have never even realize that we are living right next to some "super-intelligent" animals.
I have a feeling that the Avatar scenario is no more likely than tall blue-skinned humanoids. Our notion of intelligence pretty much defines it as collection of thought processes that end up manifesting themselves in the development of technology. Dolphins may be extremely intelligent on some scale unknown to us, but we don't observe them building submarines or decoding radio signals, so we don't consider them to be human-level intelligent. Similarly, to them, we may appear as these strange shore-bound small amphibious quadrupeds who carry various strange amulets on their bodies with which they do various strange things, all of them being of completely no use or interest to an average cetacean. I'm probably exaggerating cetacean intelligence a fair bit, but I just wanted to illustrate how closely our definition of intelligence is bound to the availability/use of technology.