You make a very compelling argument, and on balance I think that you are probably correct in your conclusions.
Part of it may be because, for a land animal, the ground is always there. There’s always a strong probability of a rock at your feet to pick up. For sea creatures, it’s possible (in theory) to wander around for months without seeing another solid object. So, land animals have less space to move about in, but have an easier time finding simple tools.
This, of course, relies on the idea that tools—unliving lumps of matter used for a purpose—are a necessary component of a civilisation. It goes without saying that tools are a necessary component of our civilisation; but are they a necessary component of all possible civilisations?
The theoretical underwater civilisation has one thing in great abundance—space. The oceans cover three-quarters of our planet, and sea creatures can move up and down easily enough. Is there any way that that space can be used, as a foundation for some form of aquatic civilisation?
Thinking about bubble netting—it should be possible for dolphins to practice a form of agriculture, herding and taming schools of edible fish, much like shepherds. (I believe ants do something similar with aphids, and I’m pretty sure a dolphin is more intelligent than an ant). Once one has shepherds, one can easily move towards the idea of breeding fish for a purpose—breeding big fish with big fish to get bigger fish, for example. Or breeding tasty with tasty to get tastier. There’s certainly space in the oceans for the dolphins to create a lot of fish farms… and then for these fish farms to swap and interbreed particularly interesting lines.
I’m not quite sure how to believably get beyond a basic agricultural/nomadic existence, though. (Unless perhaps the dolphins start breeding intelligent octopi with intelligent octopi to get more intelligent octopi or something along those lines).
Dolphins are able to herd schools of fish, cooperating to keep a ‘ball’ of fish together for a long time while feeding from it.
However, taming and sustained breeding is a long way from herding behavior—it requires long term planning for multi-year time periods, and I’m not sure if that has been observed in dolphins.
You make a very compelling argument, and on balance I think that you are probably correct in your conclusions.
Part of it may be because, for a land animal, the ground is always there. There’s always a strong probability of a rock at your feet to pick up. For sea creatures, it’s possible (in theory) to wander around for months without seeing another solid object. So, land animals have less space to move about in, but have an easier time finding simple tools.
This, of course, relies on the idea that tools—unliving lumps of matter used for a purpose—are a necessary component of a civilisation. It goes without saying that tools are a necessary component of our civilisation; but are they a necessary component of all possible civilisations?
The theoretical underwater civilisation has one thing in great abundance—space. The oceans cover three-quarters of our planet, and sea creatures can move up and down easily enough. Is there any way that that space can be used, as a foundation for some form of aquatic civilisation?
Thinking about bubble netting—it should be possible for dolphins to practice a form of agriculture, herding and taming schools of edible fish, much like shepherds. (I believe ants do something similar with aphids, and I’m pretty sure a dolphin is more intelligent than an ant). Once one has shepherds, one can easily move towards the idea of breeding fish for a purpose—breeding big fish with big fish to get bigger fish, for example. Or breeding tasty with tasty to get tastier. There’s certainly space in the oceans for the dolphins to create a lot of fish farms… and then for these fish farms to swap and interbreed particularly interesting lines.
I’m not quite sure how to believably get beyond a basic agricultural/nomadic existence, though. (Unless perhaps the dolphins start breeding intelligent octopi with intelligent octopi to get more intelligent octopi or something along those lines).
Dolphins are able to herd schools of fish, cooperating to keep a ‘ball’ of fish together for a long time while feeding from it.
However, taming and sustained breeding is a long way from herding behavior—it requires long term planning for multi-year time periods, and I’m not sure if that has been observed in dolphins.