Extraterrestrial Intelligence and Metaphor

Our minds are completely embodied. That is, the mind arises from our neural systems. What does that mean for extraterrestrial intelligence?

We will be lucky if we find any extraterrestrial species whose bodies evolved exactly like our own. Since their bodies are different, their minds will be different. They will think about different things than we do, if they think at all, and that thinking will arise in different ways.

For instance, we think metaphorically. Our brains did not specifically evolve to think metaphorically, but metaphorical thinking did arise when our brains evolved sufficiently to make it possible. The characteristic of our higher intelligence is imagination. We continually create new metaphors, and the metaphors are culturally transmitted.

If we find an extraterrestrial species that we recognize as intelligent, then the species will have neural systems similar to our own, neural systems that allow metaphorical thinking.

That is an unlikely event.