Huge gap between humans and animals

[ADigitalArtist]

Au contraire, humans are great generalists

We are both depending on if you're talking about biology or behavior. I was talking about biology. We are all in on brainpower much like blue whales are all on size.

 

[nPeace]

Humans are a kind of specialists. But I do not think we are any more universally unique for our intelligence than the blue whale is for its size.

How do you find the intelligence of the blue whale and a human not vastly different? I don't think a blue whale understands how to fast. That would be the day I start a fast for 40 days and 40 nights.

 

[Cacotopia]

yes yes the ole technology plea but it isn't a characteristic of our physicality is it? I'm talking about us not what augments us , just us. So you can leave all the tools business outside of the equation. with the tools, we would die pretty quick.

The very characteristic of what we think makes us strong also makes us weak and helpless without it.

 

[ADigitalArtist]

How do you find the intelligence of the blue whale and a human not vastly different? I don't think a blue whale understands how to fast. That would be the day I start a fast for 40 days and 40 nights.

I didn't say that their intelligence was similar. I said that human intelligence is just as unique as a blue whale's size. And just as significant.

 

[Cacotopia]

You're making somewhat weird comparisons. There are things that animals are better than humans at. For instance, birds can feel magnetic poles, while we can't. Are we a midway between birds and animals that can't sense magnetic poles? What about bats and their sonar? Humans can't do that either. What's the midway then? I'm not asking these questions, I'm pointing out the faulty logic.

Evolution means adaptation to the environment that the species lives in, and for some reason we ended up having to use our brains, cooperation, tools and being able to walk and run standing up. Other animals didn't need to make these adaptations. Instead they had different ones. Plus we weren't the only kind of humanoids, there were others, but they didn't survive, or some mixed with us, but we only have a small amount of their DNA, not much.

Also, many animals do display pretty high levels of intelligence, dolphins, apes/chimps, certain birds and pigs, for example. They can use tools, have complex social structures and/or have brains that are developed enough to solve puzzles. Pigs are known to have around the same intelligence as a young child, they can solve colour/shape puzzles meant for 3-4 year olds.

Don't forget fungi having a pretty high degree of intelligence.

Thinking while Brainless: Slime Mold Gives Insight into the Intelligence of Neuron-Less Organisms | NJIT News

also read up on Paul Stametts.

 

[Cacotopia]

I have a general feeling that whatever anyone says, this guy will make an excuse about it.

 

[QuestioningMind]

This is a great question.
I was thinking of this only recently.
If you were to gather a hundred crows, or pigeons, or lions, or crocodiles, etc. all the same sex, and line then up, or pack them in a stadium, or field, you would not be able to tell the difference one apart from the other.

On the other hand, if you pack thousands of people in a stadium, it quickly becomes evident that humans have different unique features and characteristics, one from another.

I'm not sure I agree with that claim. I suspect that if you had spent as much time studying the features of cows as you've spent studying the features of humans that you probably could tell the difference. The reality is that you have good reason to study the features of humans so you can tell them apart, but little or no reason to be able to do so with a group of cows. And of course visual differences aren't the only way that animals use to tell the difference between themselves. If you can smell the difference between one pigeon and another, visual uniqueness isn't important.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

When I was at a correctional facility, the inmates who performed sexual favors were called "fish".

Um, okay?

 

[nPeace]

We can. Animals invent. Birds can talk. Animals have the mental capacity of young children. And so forth. Just two of many:

Tool use by animals - Wikipedia
Great Apes Think Ahead: Conclusive Evidence Of Advanced Planning Capacities

I think animals imitate learned behaviors. They don't understand reasons for those behaviors. They can react to certain experiences they themselves may experience - like pain, etc., but an animal knows nothing about prayer, or how to sit down and work out a solution to solve an emotional problem.

If you are around an animal long enough, it learns your behavior,
If you are sad, you dog may put its paw on you, or the monkey may seem to say to you, "Care for a banana?"

I admire the intelligence of animals, but the do not come close to the vastly superior intelligence of humans.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

I don't really think humans are all that intelligent compared to a whale or dolphin. We're just able to create more things due to opposable thumbs. If whales and dolphins lived on land and had hands like us, I doubt we'd be the dominant species. We're just arrogant little morons.

 

[QuestioningMind]

I have a general feeling that whatever anyone says, this guy will make an excuse about it.

Bingo!

 

[ADigitalArtist]

If you can smell the difference between one pigeon and another, visual uniqueness isn't important.

Just as a fun point of interest (I swear I'm not trying to be pedantic) most birds (with exceptions) but especially songbirds have a lousy sense of smell. Even worse than humans. In social birds like doves, sea birds and fowl, identification is almost all based on voice and body language.

 

[FearGod]

I have a general feeling that whatever anyone says, this guy will make an excuse about it.

You know as I know that humans are a unique creatures on this planet,
but you and some others making excuses to think that all creatures
are the same, all are unique, the ant is great in lifting, the blue whale
is great in size, humans are great in inventing.

I wonder if you can differentiate the faces of 2 ants.

 

[George-ananda]

Human DNA isnt revolutionary in the sense that it is all that remarkable for a chromosomal line to merge and produce new traits from a new arrangement. People who want to feel more cosmically significant try to do so at the antithesis of any science, mainstream or otherwise.

As I said my reason for believing is not from saying what couldn’t happen naturally. It is from sources that I believe are saying what DID happen.

 

[nPeace]

I'm not sure I agree with that claim. I suspect that if you had spent as much time studying the features of cows as you've spent studying the features of humans that you probably could tell the difference. The reality is that you have good reason to study the features of humans so you can tell them apart, but little or no reason to be able to do so with a group of cows. And of course visual differences aren't the only way that animals use to tell the difference between themselves. If you can smell the difference between one pigeon and another, visual uniqueness isn't important.

Well of course I am not speaking of animals being able to identify animals. If I could smell water for a mile, I'd probably be able to identify a thousand male lions in a pack.

I'm talking about humans identifying animals.
Whereas, we can easily tell the difference between humans by appearance, and habits, we cannot do so with animals That's why they tag them when they want to study them.

If what you say is true, point to a real example of someone who can catch a healthy lion, or shark, and keep it for a week. Release it - no tag, and after a week, go and search for it, and identify it.

Take a million years if you like.

 

[nPeace]

I didn't say that their intelligence was similar. I said that human intelligence is just as unique as a blue whale's size. And just as significant.

Oh sorry. When you say unique, I guess you mean unique to other animals, but are they?
Can we really tell if there is a unique difference in intelligence, between the vast diversity of animal life.

We might think, that the intelligence of a dog may not be the same a a dolphin, but what makes a dolphin's intelligence unique to an orca's? Or what make the intelligence of a lion different to a python, or octopus.

Man can only guess, but does it not have to do with abilities rather than intelligent? Each animal uses what it has.
A snake can't run on legs, but like a lion, is waits for and sneaks up on it's prey. All it's doing is using a strategy to get into position to be sure it's prey does not escape. Then it goes for the kill, eats to satisfaction, and off it goes. The end... until it's hungry again.

 

[danieldemol]

Suppose man is more in totality than what he is physically, this does not prove that physically man is substantially different to an ape.

Physically we are very similar to apes and I see no reason why the few minor adaptations between man and ape couldn’t have come about through natural selection.

 

[nPeace]

I don't really think humans are all that intelligent compared to a whale or dolphin. We're just able to create more things due to opposable thumbs. If whales and dolphins lived on land and had hands like us, I doubt we'd be the dominant species. We're just arrogant little morons.

You think they would do a better job of cleaning up the mess on earth?

 

[Epic Beard Man]

I think what many are missing is I think @FearGod is referring to the human ability to do things outstanding that no other creatures has done. Humans have the ability to either enhance the lives of other creatures or destroy it. Humans have the unique position outside of language and faculty to determine the lives of other people. No other species on this planet in the history of the existence of Earth has ever created a judicial system where offenses are judged. No other species has created weapons of mass destruction. No other species has created medicines that both help (as well as hurt) different species besides humans.

Other creatures have complex systems relative to their species but humanity is in a category of its own which makes the homo sapien species unique.

 

[Salvador]

Homo sapiens are the last surviving genus Homo-species, the extinct genus Homo-species, Australopithecus and Sahelanthropus tchadensis filled the gaps between homo sapiens and whatever species was the most recent common ancestors (MCRA) between humans and chimps.