Note: I tend to agreed with the "selfish gene" theory of evolution, so this tends to color my viewpoint.

Evolution works through selection pressure, not through "engineering".

If we can ever *do* genetic engineering we can play with our own baseline architecture, but, thinking about it, what kind of traits would we like to engineer in? There will be those (with money) who'll want the vast majority of people to be engineered as "sheeple"...

Selection pressures filter traits *out*. Traits that aren't filtered out are *in* because they're reproduced. "Evolution is ProCreation", after all.

Consider that w/o challenges there's no "need" to evolve new branches to take advantage of ecological niches. Additionally, genetically delivered traits *do* compete with each other... so competition will continue.

Intelligence-- a technology wielding intelligence-- requires a whole set of selection pressures. If we weren't so poorly suited to compete with other animals once we got out of the trees there would have been no real advantage to quick wits, for instance. Tool/weapon use made it possible for us to *not* need to bodily evolve in response to fight/flight using only our bodies but enabled competition in other areas.

What makes a human a human?

We can bark up a whole bunch of trees but I don't think a single answer will ever be found *and* accepted.

So a successful predator-- like Niven's Kzin-- won't need to evolve much intelligence unless they're under selection pressures that benefit those who think their way out *first*... which means they AREN'T the *dominant* form of life on their planet.

I'm not sure how likely a Pak'Mara would be to acquire intelligence without something in their environment demanding it for survival and reproduction.

While I don't think the selection pressures that made us are all that narrow, I personally don't think it's quite as wide as you imply.

Evolution is a form of competition that requires reproduction to cross the finish line; the challenges must provide some benefit to intelligence.

Other *forms* of intelligence at or beyond our range of mentation are likely, of course-- but the likelihood of them being technological is also not what I'd consider probable, either.

Any engineering done, BTW, would have to have the benefit of being reproducible. If new traits don't reproduce then they won't expand. In my teep stories, for instance, those w/ the trait work hard to reinforce it so that it is more of a benefit than a curse.

Of course we human *do* have a tendency to prefer to kill off competitors rather than out-breed them...

(laughs maniacally)