Birthright

Tanayoka sighed, returned Consuela to her quarters aboard the spacecraft, and issued orders to capture

one of the aliens. Two hours later he knocked on her door and informed her that her subject was in the brig, awaiting her pleasure.

When she arrived, she found an inhabitant of Beelzebub pacing back and forth like a caged animal, which it indeed resembled. She pulled up a chair and sat down to observe it. The alien uttered a loud hooting sound, glared at her for a moment, and then resumed its pacing. “The jaw's built all wrong,” said Consuela. “It must ingest by suction. It couldn't possibly have any teeth.”

“Are you a physiologist as well as a psychologist?” asked Tanayoka. “A little of both. Our field has come a long way since it was concerned with why husbands strayed from the fold.”

“Touché!” said the little man. “I notice that it has well-articulated thumbs on its hands. Wouldn't that imply some intelligence? I mean, you need thumbs to build machines, and so on.” “There are still some apes and monkeys in captivity on Earth,” said Consuela. “They have thumbs, but they've reached an evolutionary dead end, and hence haven't developed the power of abstract thought.” “What kind of dead end?”

“They're herbivores,” explained Consuela. “Thus they have no need to do anything with their hands except peel bananas. There is no environmental need for them to think.” “Surely you're not suggesting that only carnivores can develop intelligence!” said Tanayoka. “What about the Butterballs of Gamma Leporis IX, or the—” “You misunderstand me,” said Consuela “Being carnivorous has nothing to do with developing intelligence. In point of fact, only a very small percentage of sentient races spring from carnivores. Most meat-eaters evolvephysical means of catching and killing their prey. What I said was that environmental need creates intelligence. Man developed it because he weighed about a hundred pounds and was trying to kill half-ton herbivores for dinner. No amount of physical equipment could have helped him. Other races develop intelligence for other reasons of need. However, many of them—most, in fact—get sidetracked somewhere along the way. Like the monkeys, for example.” “Then how can you tell if our alien here is intelligent?” “I intend to ask it,” said Consuela.

“How? You don't know anything about its language.” “It's quite possible that we have a language in common. May I have the loan of some paper and a pen?” Tanayoka sent for them, and a moment later she was carefully drawing a right triangle and writing Pythagoras's theorem beneath it.