Racial differences...

[Viking]

That works for you. It does not work for the mollusc, which is fantastically adapted to its demanding environment.


The Neanderthaler had bigger brains than us. Perhaps, he was smarter too. And physically more robust to boot. What he lacked, some theorise, was simply verbal cognitive capacity. So he might have lost out to people who were less intelligent than him, but still more fit.

If I am careful with fire and boiling water, it is instinct and not intelligence. If I get attracted to the opposite sex rather three-legged horses, it is instinct and not intelligence. If I am good [enough] at keeping my balance, it is instinct and not intelligence. If a mollusc is intelligent, it could figure out a new way to get fed when its main source of food has gone dry.

I am well aware of the fact that intelligence alone does not make winners; it's only an advantage. One animal that strikes me as pretty intelligent, is the orca. (A) certain population(s) of the orca has developed a technique that orca populations elsewhere do not practise: they hurl themselves at beaches to catch seals. There is also an example of one single orca mother who has found her own unique way of hunting seals; the particulcar method which she uses has yet not been observed elsewhere. Such activities takes more than just creativity, you must also be aware of the dangers; and thus intelligence is needed.

If your specie runs fast enough already, there are other things that will settle whose genes that will be dominant tomorrow.