just for the sake of the debate, if humans suddenly ceased to exist; what life-form has the best chance to; not only become top of the food chain, but to eventually evolve to the point where humans are at today? and ricky, this is not about religion so do not bother to answer.
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Perhaps some bird species becomes intelligent eventually, if we are wiped out. Or some insect species. Could be anything. By various studies, dolphins seem to be the closest to having intelligence among all the species we have investigated, so they are a good potential candidate - and since they live in the water, a civilisation they would build would likely be very different from ours.
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  Entity Sentiment Detection: various studies    data point   only species   bird species  
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  Considerate: 88%  
  Substantial: 59%  
  Spelling & Grammar: 89%  
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By "intelligence" here I imply the ability to consciously forecast the future and alter one's decisions based on it, as opposed to being guided by instincts. That is the ability only humans have developed so far.
I by no means believe that no other species can ever develop a similar ability. I am just saying that we do not know much about the conditions required for a species to develop it, so it is hard to predict what species, if any, will be the next one to do so on Earth.
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Corvids, such as crows, magpies and ravens
Elephants
Apes and a few select monkeys
Cetaceans, especially dolphins
Octopuses, though this one is a bit more of a stretch.
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  Entity Sentiment Detection: human intelligence.Corvids    select monkeysCetaceans   species   groups  
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As far as who would replace us? Who says we need to be replaced.
What in nature requires us?
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  Entity Sentiment Detection: animal kingdom    animals   way   people  
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  Entity Sentiment Detection: rest of the animal kingdom    nature   enough intelligence   race of animals  
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