No no no, I don't mean going from already intelligent/sentient/sapient to MORE intelligent….

I mean, going from the levels of intelligence/awareness we see in insects → fish → chickens and cattle → monkeys/apes → what we consider "actual" intelligence as seen in humans.

Evolution of anything is obviously not some simple boolean switch: It's not like one day you're a full fish and the next day you give birth to an amphibian with legs.

But how would the gradual evolution of intelligence look and feel like?

Going from what we consider animals to be, to having awareness and introspective thoughts and future planning?

Is it like, do you have just 1 thought per day at first,

or can only count up to 3 for a few thousand years,

only plan for up to 1 day ahead, and remember that plan for only a few hours…

And when do all the clearly self-destructive things kick in, that we Modern Humans™ do that obviously harm individuals and the species? :)