[Raggs]

We can at least agree that there is no end to evolution. However evolution is more than random mutation. The most important part is selection.

Consciousness is very tricky, since we can only ever have our own experience of it. We can test for self recognition, but just because a creature can't recognise itself doesn't mean it's not conscious. But self recognition is a very strong evidence for consciousness.

As for Alex, check out the other one. And whilst they may not reach the levels of the great apes, considering the size of them, it's amazing what they achieve, and solidly proves that brain size isn't too much of a limiting factor. In my mind one of the keys to our success is they way we learn and communicate, not in fact our capacity for memory etc. Yes we can use tools, yes we can learn words, so can apes, so can birds (they use tools in nature, making hooks from wire etc). Very few human beings are actually as amazing as we like to think. The guy who used a wheel to make a cart, genius, the guy who first created a combustion engine, again pretty damn clever. Most inventions todays aren't in fact that amazing, they're just a sensible progression from yesterdays technology. And humans are able to communicate so fast today it means we're rocketing forward through cultural learning.

As for physical facts required, what exactly do you mean? Running a body doesn't need that much intelligence at all, most of the creatures on this earth manage it with just a few hundred nerve cells. Mammal bodies are perhaps a bit trickier, but running a human body isn't really any harder than running a shrews on the technicalities, so that's maybe half a centimeter squared. Mammals are all of roughly equal complexity. Dinosaurs may well have been warmblooded, or cold, or both, we can't really tell, but there's no reason to think they are any more complex than us, or perhaps simpler (no need for milk production, if cold blooded, even less brain power is required, no regulation required). If I'm on completely the wrong track with your reasoning here, please correct me.

The reason I think intelligence is more than likely, is that we have a lot of examples of it on earth, several mammal species, bird species too, octopi, squid, cuttlefish, mantis shrimp, birds, all of these have displayed large degrees of intelligence. It's merely a matter of social factors from there on in (in my opinion, of course evolution is required to put these social factors in place).

I'm very good with biology, so don't worry about using any technical terms etc (I don't know your level), offer up your ideas and reasons.