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Why is there so much hatred and perverted pornography and over stimulating garbage on the internet ?
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Niels
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Likewise. I am interested in hearing your thoughts and what evidence you might bring to the table, now that you mention it.
I said "seems to be" qualitatively and not simply quantitatively different. That is well within my purview as a thinking person. I did not say "definitely is", but I don't see a reason to doubt my conclusion at this time. My mental model of animal intelligence has served me well as I have a history of being good with animals.
My perspective comes from many years of pet ownership, various books, magazines, coursework, and occasionally reading academic journal articles on the subject when I'm inspired to do so. I also read speculative hard science fiction, and have written some of my own. Thankfully, I'm free to connect the dots where I see recurring patterns; drawing my own conclusions from a lifetime of experience and predictive value. Here I am explaining how animal intelligence appears from my own vantage point.
Speaking of my cat, he doesn't do human things poorly insofar as he does cat things well. My other pets, from hamsters to hermit crabs, have all been quite good at doing what their respective species are known for. Put a crossword puzzle in front of them, however, and they wouldn't know what to make of it. Meanwhile, they are better at doing animal things than I am. My sense of smell, for instance, isn't as good as my cat's, and I also lack his reflexes. There are some similarities in terms of brain structure and social behavior, but I am not a cat and he is not a human. We each do our own things well, and I perceive that as a qualitative difference in brain function. Not merely one of quantity.
Just for fun, here are a few interesting articles I just found online comparing human and animal brain function:
Comparative Brain Imaging Reveals Analogous and Divergent Patterns of Species and Face Sensitivity in Humans and Dogs
https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4408&context=etd
https://www.wfla.com/bloom-tampa-ba...ing-the-enigma-understanding-the-feline-mind/
Feel free to add some of your own.
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Larniavc
"Larniavc sir, how are you so smart?"
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I think maybe I've lost track of where you are going with this (but I'm quite drunk as write this so perhaps I'm at fault). Humans have several significant abilities: we are expert tool creators, when engage in persistent hunting and we can modify the environment to suit our biology, our ability to communicate is advanced. I'm not saying these things are not true. But these amazing abilities should be viewed among the amazing abilities of every animal.
Some cetaceans can use sound to see inside of the bodies of the things they are 'looking' at. Termites invented air conditioning before humans even existed. Some ants are farmers of fungi. Elephants perform rituals when a peer dies. Crows hold grudges that propagate through generations. Orca have regional language. Orca are interesting as they have been seen to be taunting human fishermen when they figured out the human's anti orca strategies and bypassed them. There also seems to be a 'fashion' among some populations of orca where the younger adults have taken to wrecking keels on boats; this a novel behaviour.
So yes, the things that humans can do because of our biology is amazing; but is it more amazing than what other animals can do because of their biology? Only if one's a prior assumption is that humans are special.
Now you must excuse me but I have to take my leave (to the guest bedroom as my wife says I snore if I've had a drink and I've definitely had a drink). All the best.
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Niels
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No worries. Hope you're well rested now.
My point is that I think humans and animals are special in their own ways. That's why I see it as more of a qualitative difference than a quantitative one. Not just between human and let's say a crow, for instance, but between a crow and an elephant.
I agree that animals can do remarkable things, and it seems to me that they may share similar feelings of joy, sadness, etc. In the Christian worldview they are not "fallen" like we are. It also seems to me that they are also likely to have an afterlife. Others may disagree, but that's just how I see it on a personal level.
When I say that humans and non-human animals are different, this isn't meant to denigrate the animal. Rather, that we are called to (or evolved to) uphold certain standards of behavior because we are human. Similar might be said of elephants not behaving like crows just because it's natural for a crow to do so. While I don't know if elephants can choose whether or not to behave like crows, I do know that most humans can make such a choice.
When somebody says "don't act like an animal", however, it's rarely about pretending to be another species, but a reference to ethics and morality. Human society has different moral and ethical standards than other species (kind of like how one species differs from another). Although there is some overlap, those standards aren't necessarily comparable.
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Larniavc
"Larniavc sir, how are you so smart?"
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So when an elephant or crow or chimp picks up a stick to use as a tool which is behaving like the other? Is it the chimp and elephant behaving like a crow or the crow and chimp behaving like an elephant.
Yeah, but that's just a saying. It's not a description of some fundamental truth.
There are certainly things unique to every animal based on their biology. Humans for instance are un-matched in terms of endurance. We can run any other animal on the planet into the ground so that it is too exhausted to do much more than die. We can track them when we cannot see them because the denser ion channels in our brain allow us to imagine where the prey item may have fled to (as we cannot keep up with it).
Florida carpenter ants can identify limb wounds on their nestmates, then treat them with either cleaning or amputation. Only ants and humans do that.
Portia spiders are remarkable for their intelligent hunting behaviour. They exhibit spatial memory and object permanence and are capable of trying out a behaviour to obtain feedback regarding success or failure, and they can plan ahead (as it seems from their detouring behaviour). They are capable of learning and problem solving, traits normally attributed to much larger animals.
So yes, humans exhibit fascinating and unique abilities but so does every other animal on the planet. Recent research seems to indicate that T-Rex had the most sophisticated sensory abilities of any land animal ever; nothing today competes. There is no basis for saying that the unique abilities of humans is any more or less impressive than the unique abilities of any other animal.
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CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN
My dad died 1/12/2023. I'm still devastated.
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There has always been a lot of evil. Now you see more of it. Because of the Internet.
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Niels
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Where did I say that what humans do is more impressive? Don't put words in my mouth. The fact of the matter is that there are similarities and differences between species. What makes portia spiders unique isn't what makes humans unique. The science is clear on this. Not only in terms of how the animal kingdom can be categorized by genus and species, but in terms of behaviors. That a crow isn't an elephant is a fundamental truth. That a human isn't a non-human animal is likewise a fundmental truth. Not just a saying.
I want the engineer who designs my airplane to act like a human being while he or she is working on it. Not like a T-Rex, regardless of how sophisticated the T-Rex's sensory abilities may have been. I doubt many would pass the PE exam anyway. Now that computer-based testing is used, their arms would be too short to reach the keyboard.
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