If it hadn't been for the K-T event wiping out the dinosaurs and creating a niche for mammals and eventually primates to thrive, we probably wouldn't be here.
It doesn't get discussed enough how much of a factor blind stupid luck was in the one example we have of the evolution of intelligence in the universe.
But the question was not whether we would be here.
What's to say that in the absence of the K-T event, some dominant dinosaur species wouldn't have eventually evolved their intelligence to our level? Perhaps even earlier?
It's not like the K-T event is a prerequisite for "general" intelligence, is it?
Perhaps in such an alternative universe where the K-T event didn't happen you'd be a dinosaur posting on Dinohacker News right now.
I don't know, dinosaurs were around for hundreds of millions of years or more, and while they evolved, they never evolved intelligence. It only happened when a catastrophic event disrupted the natural equilibrium. I can't help but wonder if intelligence isn't something that tends to arise under extreme circumstances.
there's really no saying. mammals have been around for ~180 million years, so ~112 million before the mass extinction. The dinosaurs were on earth for about 165 million years.
Given the relative quickness that intelligence exploded in later hominids, who knows. we could know about some gibbon analog in the dinosaurs right now, that given just a little longer could've made it to human levels of intelligence.
It doesn't get discussed enough how much of a factor blind stupid luck was in the one example we have of the evolution of intelligence in the universe.