# The Immortalization of Humanity by Clifford Pickover > “Despite what we see in Star Wars and Star Trek, I don't expect intelligence to be an inevitable result of evolution on other worlds. Since the beginning of life on Earth, as many as 50 billion species have arisen, and only one of them has acquired technology. If intelligence has such has high survival value, why are so few creatures intelligent? Mammals are not the most successful or plentiful of animals. Ninety-five percent of all animal species are invertebrates. Most of the worm species on our planet have not even been discovered yet, and there are a billion insects wandering the Earth.” > **— Clifford Pickover**, *2000, Edge Annual Question, “What Is Today's Most Important Unreported Story?”* ## Sources and Context - **Direct Edge response and surrounding essay:** [The Immortalization of Humanity](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/11603) — Edge published this exact passage in its 2000 Annual Question collection, *WHAT IS TODAY'S MOST IMPORTANT UNREPORTED STORY?*. The response page preserves the surrounding argument and qualifications. - **Complete local collection index:** [[research/Edge 2000 Full Quotation Curation|Edge 2000 Full Quotation Curation]] — retained source-first record for the complete response cohort and this passage's promotion status. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Evolutionary Roots of Silicon Valley|Valley Roots]] - **Article:** [[articles/Digital Darwinism and the Invisible World of Machine Evolution|Digital Darwinism]] - **Article:** [[articles/We Were Never Going to Make It|Never Going to Make It!]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Evolutionary Biology|Evolutionary Biology]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Evolutionary Biology|Evolutionary Biology]] - [[wiki/Human Evolution|Human Evolution]] - [[wiki/Species-Level Maturation|Species-Level Maturation]] - [[wiki/Convergent Evolution|Convergent Evolution]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “Despite what we see in Star Wars and Star Trek, I don't expect intelligence to be an inevitable result of evolution on other worlds. Since the beginning of life on Earth, as many as 50 billion species have arisen, and only one of them has acquired technology. If intelligence has such has high survival value, why are so few creatures intelligent? Mammals are not the most successful or plentiful of animals. Ninety-five percent of all animal species are invertebrates. Most of the worm species on our planet have not even been discovered yet, and there are a billion insects wandering the Earth.” — Clifford Pickover, 2000, Edge Annual Question, “What Is Today's Most Important Unreported Story?” https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-clifford-pickover-immortalization-humanity ```