What prevents other animals/species from evolving and developing cognitively the same way humans have?
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Others have talked about the fact that there is no “goal” for evolution and whatever trait moves you to survive and reproduce will win out and that is true. But let’s also look at it from the weird path that humans have taken. We were able to survive with the singular physical dominating trait of endurance. Pound for pound we are amazingly weak and slow but we can cover distances without rest like no other. The physical traits that allowed this to happen were lack of hair, sweat, and losing a lot of our digestive track to become lighter and more calorie efficient. Those features could not survive and propagate without the cognitive traits being there. The cognitive traits most important were pattern matching for tracking (because we are slow), communication for coordination, and abstract thinking/memory for teaching so we could prepare food that shorter digestive tracks could manage and make shelter and clothing against the cold.
As others have said, lots of these traits are shared and recognizable in other animals. So what prevents other animals from cognitively developing? I think the answer is that the process is slow, we got here first, and we did and will kill off anything that competes for our dominance and control of resources. So unlike other answers, I say that humans are the environmental factor that prevents other species from developing cognitively. We have a long history of exterminating creatures that are getting too clever for their own good (ie. impacting our plans.). There are very few environments where cognitive improvement would not significantly improve your survival chances. The only drawback is increased calorie use. I think that given enough time, cognitive improvement will happen (two steps forward one step back) unless you are in a non-competitive environment or go extinct.
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