- The Guardian, Wednesday 14 April 2010
Mulder and Scully search for the truth about advanced species in the film The X-Files: I Want to Believe." (AP Photo/20th Century Fox, Diyah Pera)
If there were a cleverer, more advanced species than us on this planet, how would we know? (With no way of knowing otherwise, doesn't every species think it's the brightest and most advanced?)
The existence of a cleverer, more advanced species wouldn't make Homo sapiens blind or stupid. Consequently, if this more advanced species was riding around in Maglev cars, say, we'd probably spot them. Such a species would also have been particularly visible in the 1970s: they would have been the ones not wearing flares and platform shoes.
As for every species thinking it is the brightest and most advanced, many species are not capable of thought: trees, for example. Of those species that have a brain, does even an advanced animal such as a horse really ponder where it is in the IQ pecking order? Neigh lad, methinks.
Ged Dale, Eccles, Lancs
It depends on what you consider to be advanced. The fact that every other species, except man, can survive in a state of complete freedom in what is becoming a very threatened environment says much more for those species than for our own, which, despite all the science and technology at our disposal, is the least free on Earth.
As for the past – Neolithic people's ability to produce the tools and expertise to survive surely made them far more advanced for their day than we are now with all that is at our disposal. Just ask an archaeologist.
Rob Parrish, Starcross, Devon
Dammit, you rumbled us!
Thomas Mutz, Portoroz, Slovenia
Wouldn't they have done something to control the plague of humans that is overrunning the planet?
Tim Lidbetter, London EC1
The answer is implied in the question – we define intelligence by the attributes that we ourselves have: for example self-determination, and the ability to make and use tools. If we were to apply different criteria, we could easily conclude other beings are more intelligent than us – for example the ability of ants to work together to achieve common goals exceeds the ability of humans to do the same.
Nina Grant, London EC3
If you don't know whether a cleverer species exists, you haven't met our cat.
Anne Cowper, Swansea
Just ask Mulder and Scully. But the real question is, why would they choose not to reveal themselves?
Susan Harris, Birmingham
What is there in a song that makes someone like it? I love key changes, but no one else seems to – why is this?
Key changes are often used to bolster weak songs, usually in the repetition of choruses towards the end of a song where the key is raised by a tone each time. This is the songwriting equivalent of "Go faster" stripes on a Robin Reliant. Key changes may, however, be used in more subtle and beautiful ways, and so shouldn't be dismissed. An example of a more artfully rendered modulation is Paul McCartney's Here, There and Everywhere.
While one might analyse aspects of songs to try to explain why people like them, the song remains a vital and tangible vehicle to help people express their hopes, feelings and fears, and to build up a soundtrack of their lives and memories. Whenever I hear Ghost Town by the Specials I am transported back to Thatcher's Britain, to the jobless millions, to the race riots, and to making my school tie as wide and as short as possible, for reasons that are no longer entirely clear to me. What is clear is that these songs have become woven into the fabric of our lives.
Andy Price, Hugglescote, Leics
Our partitioned cutlery holder has, from left to right, knives, forks and spoons, as in the phrase "knives and forks". My housemate insists it should be forks, knives, then spoons, as in table settings. Who is right?
I can't instinctively tell left from right, so trying to give directions is a bit of a nightmare. It was once suggested that I think "fork" for left and "knife" for right, as with table settings, but this didn't help, and the point made in Bobby Coppin's query explains why – the brain is confused by visualising a table setting but thinking "knives and forks".
Susan Meek, Dundee
Bobby, you've got that habit from Mum and Dad, but Ben (the housemate) is right: it's forks, then knives. Your way only encourages those who hold their cutlery incorrectly.
Woozle Coppin, Leeds
I think you should get out more.
Richard Wood, Toddington, Beds
Any answers?
Why "cloud nine" and not, say, cloud four?
Maya Reid-Cain, High Wycombe, Bucks
In films that feature high-speed chases through pedestrianised areas, bystanders always jump out of the way, while those in vehicles swerve to avoid them. Would people be better off keeping still to avoid collision?
Keith Donaldson, London N3
Send questions and answers to nq@guardian.co.uk. Please include name, address and phone number.
