David Kipping

where we should have the same kind of stable climatic conditions we have now.

And once you've got the eukaryote cell, photosynthesis, all these advanced biological innovations, they don't go away.

They persist in the genetic heritage.

So even if something happens to us, and obviously I'm not hoping that would happen,

But if something happened to us, I don't think you're going to extinguish every human.

I don't think you're going to extinguish every octopus, every raven.

And there's intelligence across the animal kingdom, like chimp.

It's all over the place.

Intelligence, my provocative claim, is one of these great events that have happened in evolutionary sense.

It's very speculative, this idea, I have to say.

But like how photosynthesis emerged and plants emerged, that was an event which changed the history of the planet forever.

It's not going away.

Intelligence, I think, is the same thing.

It's here and you can't get rid of it.

It's like an infestation.

You can't scrub it.

It's too advantageous to species to be intelligent not to do it once they've discovered that genetic solution.

So I think we will have beings on this planet a billion years.

It will probably happen many times.

There'll be civilizations which will emerge and they'll be like, what the fuck did these humans do?