# Intelligence Is Not Evolution's Inevitable Destination by P Z Myers > “Our species itself is partly shaped by the force of our environment through selection, and partly by fluctuations of chance. If humans had gone extinct 100,000 years ago, the world would go on turning, life would go on thriving, and some other species would be prospering in our place — and most likely not by following the same intelligence-driven technological path we did.” > **— P Z Myers**, *2011, Edge Annual Question, “What Scientific Concept Would Improve Everybody's Cognitive Toolkit?”* ## Sources and Context - **Direct Edge response and surrounding essay:** [The Mediocrity Principle](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/11272) — Edge published this exact passage in its 2011 Annual Question collection, *WHAT SCIENTIFIC CONCEPT WOULD IMPROVE EVERYBODY'S COGNITIVE TOOLKIT?*. The response page preserves the surrounding argument and qualifications. - **Complete local collection index:** [[research/Edge 2011 Full Quotation Curation|Edge 2011 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]] - **Collection:** [[collections/MARS|MARS]] - **Article:** [[articles/We Were Never Going to Make It|Never Going to Make It!]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Last Migration Will Not Be Human|The Last Migration]] - **Article:** [[articles/Christopher Nolan's Odyssey at the Threshold of Machine Succession|Nolan's Odyssey]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Major Evolutionary Transitions|Major Evolutionary Transitions]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Major Evolutionary Transitions|Major Evolutionary Transitions]] - [[wiki/Convergent Evolution|Convergent Evolution]] - [[wiki/Coevolution|Coevolution]] - [[wiki/Evolutionary Dynamics|Evolutionary Dynamics]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “Our species itself is partly shaped by the force of our environment through selection, and partly by fluctuations of chance. If humans had gone extinct 100,000 years ago, the world would go on turning, life would go on thriving, and some other species would be prospering in our place — and most likely not by following the same intelligence-driven technological path we did.” — P Z Myers, 2011, Edge Annual Question, “What Scientific Concept Would Improve Everybody's Cognitive Toolkit?” https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-p-myers-intelligence-evolution-s-inevitable-destination ```