At first it seems like there'd have to be some giant traumatic mutation to approach a level similar to humans -- mere incremental change doesn't seem sufficient. But then, there's some really weird dogs out there, and it's hard to imagine incremental change producing them either. So maybe something is possible.
I still wish people would work on dolphin communication more. I feel like achieving that would be a dramatic accomplishment on several levels; it would require some understanding of a very foreign intelligence. But I'm drifting in topic... still, it seems animal intelligence will always be foreign to us.
"""At first it seems like there'd have to be some giant traumatic mutation to approach a level similar to humans -- mere incremental change doesn't seem sufficient."""
I wonder, would such a mutation occur spontaneously or randomly, or would it be brought about by environmental pressure?
I don't know too much about this topic, but I can imagine that strange mutations occur all the time, and just aren't viable or successful enough, most of the time... only when the environment has changed drastically, a certain mutation might suddenly have an important advantage that makes it more successful than its "normal" counterparts.