I watched that episode as a kid, and it still comes up regularly in mind every time I hear someone blabbing on about what is and isn't a possible habitable world.
We could concievably go to the Jovian moons and find an algae bloom thriving on the heat of the vents, and be disappointed it's just a big weed, and miss that it's an intelligent super-organism that's spent millions of years pondering philosophy as a single giant brain trying to make sense of its own very strange closed off universe. We could visit the methane seas on Titan with its atmosphere rich in organic compounds and miss that the fine powder on one protruding rock face is a billion year old species of mineral eaters that pass the eons arranging choral music while they nibble the stone. Etc.
We used to be able to assume a species has to be large, mammalian, and human-like to display intelligence & have any importance, but only because we are so very, very poor at recognizing intelligence anywhere but in ourselves. Even in our own world.
We could concievably go to the Jovian moons and find an algae bloom thriving on the heat of the vents, and be disappointed it's just a big weed, and miss that it's an intelligent super-organism that's spent millions of years pondering philosophy as a single giant brain trying to make sense of its own very strange closed off universe. We could visit the methane seas on Titan with its atmosphere rich in organic compounds and miss that the fine powder on one protruding rock face is a billion year old species of mineral eaters that pass the eons arranging choral music while they nibble the stone. Etc.
We used to be able to assume a species has to be large, mammalian, and human-like to display intelligence & have any importance, but only because we are so very, very poor at recognizing intelligence anywhere but in ourselves. Even in our own world.
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