[bluekeybox]

Sure emotional intelligence may be more important than most of us realize (the theory of mind, the ability to "read" other people's thoughts, sometimes also more cynically called Machiavellian intelligence, is thought by some to be the primary driver behind the development of sentience in humans), but I was developing the following thought experiment:

Suppose bottlenose dolphins have an uncanny ability to "read minds" and interpret thoughts and emotions of other bottlenose dolphins (but only of individuals of their own species -- not of porpoises, humans, etc.) to the same or even better extent than we humans can read minds of other humans, but due to the accidental specifics of their bodily layout and environment (no limbs with which to grasp and manipulate objects, unsuitable environment for the use of fire) are unable to develop any semblance of technology. What would those "super-dolphins" look like to us? I have a feeling they would still look a lot like dolphins, and we, without some very specific/expensive/targeted research, probably would have never even realize that we are living right next to some "super-intelligent" animals.