@sad_historian
I personally think it's a perfectly reasonable assumption of Yamamoto to make about what Wada's point was. One of the primary critiques of the idea that intelligent life only exists on earth that has been repeatedly explored in science fiction is that we're searching for intelligent life on other planets
that is intelligent in the same way that we are.
You're right, Wada never said that the only thing that makes intelligence is consciousness and speech. If you reverse the order of panels three and four on that fourth page, maybe that helps Yamamoto's dialogue to come across as more natural and less putting words in someone else's mouth-- but Yamamoto specifically says it in the order that she does. This is just conjecture, but I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that Yamamoto is familiar enough with this critique that when she hears Wada suggest that intelligent life only exists on earth, she's moving to address the
idea that intelligence doesn't equal consciousness and speech, not necessarily that Wada said these things herself.
But it does have the potential to come off as abrasive in the Japanese as well, so I don't particularly mind the interpretation that Yamamoto was putting words in Wada's mouth. You're the one listening to her dialogue-- it's up to you!
