What if Humans Aren’t the Most Intelligent Creatures on the Planet?

The truth is that intellect and intelligence are relevant to circumstance. Dolphins survive underwater explicitly well. We can't. A horse and an elephant Both have internal mapping systems that allow them to travel to a place ONE time, from then on, from anywhere on earth get back to that one place; from MEMORY ALONE! We can't do that! We can devise complicated structures, and complex mathematics, they can't... it's all relevant to what is necessary for survival. Period. The fact that we possess the ability to set ourselves apart from them by THOSE standards doesn't point to greater intellect. It points out that the needs for different types of intellect, Is in greater demand in our worlds versus theirs.. Period.

HughFreakingDillon said:

PJ_Soul said:

whispering hands said:

PJ_Soul said:

If whales, dolphins, and maybe even elephants had hands capable of fine motor skills, they very well might be on top of the food chain. But since they are physically limited, humans win. I think it's got more to do with opposable thumbs than it does intelligence. Lucky fucking humans!

Not quite.. Apes and primates of like sort have very very high intelligence, and the closest thing to opposable thumbs, and they aren't ruling things. It is a matter of advantage for sure.. But o think our thumbs have nothing to do with it. It's how we USE the jntligenve we have.. Versus using it in in the most basic sense. Really the only thing that truly sets us apart from the animals, OTHER than our THUMBS, is the ability to process multiple capacities of intellect at one time. Animals don't serve emotion, they don't use logic, and they can't reason, at least not on the level we can. However.. I do think what you're saying about humans and luck?? Is dead on.. We got lucky, plain and simple.

They don't have opposable thumbs. They are incapable of fine motor skills. If there could put together a computer, I bet they could probably learn how to. At least the smart ones.
Actually, whales, dolphins, primates, and elephants do indeed act on emotion. I'm thinking you might be confusing their inability to communicate fully with humans for a lack of intelligence. Apparently, scientists who have analyzed the brains of whales and dolphins say that it's quite likely that they have at least as much emotional intelligence as humans, and may actually be MORE intelligent (but I'm not talking horses here. I have never seen any scientific study suggesting that the intelligence of horses even comes close to that of humans).

show me one scientific study that states that whales and dolphins are possibly more INTELLECTUAL than humans.

if they are, I'd better brush up on my accounting skills. Flipper might take my job.

And no horses are no where NEAR the same scale of intellect as humans. And while animals do EXPERIENCE emotions, they don't serve them like we do. The closest I've found in my research is the elephant and the whale. But we actually ACT on emotions. Animals do not. They experience them, they suffer grief, they are attatched to their offspring, but they don't practice vengeance, they don't lie to cover guilt, they don't conspire against one another.. These are all actions based on emotional motive. Animals don't have that capacity, is what I was saying, when I said they don't serve emotion.

brianlux said:

Wow- lots to read here. I'm at work so will catch up later but want to jot this thought down:

If humans are so smart, why are we the only species intentionally fowling our own nest and creating a habitat situation that might lead to our own (and many others) extinction? I can't picture dolphins doing this. They would smirk or laugh at us... but they are probably cursing us for dumping oil and a multitude of toxins in their environment. Not cool, definitely not smart.

Partly because dolphins aren't smart enough to.

PJ_Soul said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

PJ_Soul said:

whispering hands said:

PJ_Soul said:

If whales, dolphins, and maybe even elephants had hands capable of fine motor skills, they very well might be on top of the food chain. But since they are physically limited, humans win. I think it's got more to do with opposable thumbs than it does intelligence. Lucky fucking humans!

Not quite.. Apes and primates of like sort have very very high intelligence, and the closest thing TO opposable thumbs, and they aren't ruling things. It is a matter of advantage for sure.. But o think our thumbs have nothing to do with it. It's how we USE the jntligenve we have.. Versus using it in in the most basic sense. Really the only thing that truly sets us apart from the animals, OTHER than our THUMBS, is the ability to process multiple capacities of intellect at one time. Animals don't serve emotion, they don't use logic, and they can't reason, at least not on the level we can. However.. I do think what you're saying about humans and luck?? Is dead on.. We got lucky, plain and simple.

They don't have opposable thumbs. They are incapable of fine motor skills. If there could put together a computer, I bet they could probably learn how to. At least the smart ones.
Actually, whales, dolphins, primates, and elephants do indeed act on emotion. I'm thinking you might be confusing their inability to communicate fully with humans for a lack of intelligence. Apparently, scientists who have analyzed the brains of whales and dolphins say that it's quite likely that they have at least as much emotional intelligence as humans, and may actually be MORE intelligent (but I'm not talking horses here. I have never seen any scientific study suggesting that the intelligence of horses even comes close to that of humans).

show me one scientific study that states that whales and dolphins are possibly more INTELLECTUAL than humans.

if they are, I'd better brush up on my accounting skills. Flipper might take my job.

I never uttered the word intellectual, but I'm not touching on that unless you tell me what you mean by it.

Here is just a vague overview of some of the considerations: http://www.whalefacts.org/are-whales-intelligent/
(I'm not using this as any proof of anything - just some things that are considered when addressing this topic).

And here is an interesting article about what studies look at when exploring the brains of whales: http://greymattersjournal.com/killer-whales-are-non-human-persons/
(I'm not using these as any proof of anything - just some things that are considered when addressing this topic).


I personally believe that the failure of humans to translate complex animal languages (and vice versa) is what creates a really exaggerated impression that the most intelligent animals aren't as smart as they really are.
I also think that people tend to define evidence of intelligence with a very narrow outlook that is based on culture. People like to say that such and such an animal couldn't be as smart as humans because they don't build stuff. Or don't have technology. Or don't have a written language. Or, laughably, that they don't talk. Obviously, I think this kind of thinking leads to people grossly underestimating the intelligence of certain animals. They aren't using the right measurements.

What is more, neuronal messages must travel longer distances in the relatively large brains of elephants and whales than they do in the more compact human brain. The resulting boost in information-processing speed may at least partly explain the disparity in aptitude between humans and other big-brained creatures.

Among humans' cerebral advantages, language may be the most obvious. Various animals can convey complex messages to other members of their species; they can communicate about objects that are not in sight and relay information about individuals and events. Chimpanzees, gorillas, dolphins and parrots can even understand and use human speech, gestures or symbols in constructions of up to about three words. But even after years of training, none of these creatures develops verbal skills more advanced than those of a three-year-old child.

In humans, grammar and vocabulary all but explode at age three. This timing corresponds with the development of Broca's speech area in the left frontal lobe, which may be unique to humans. That is, scientists are unsure whether a direct precursor to this speech region exists in the nonhuman primate brain. The absence of an intricately wired language region in the brains of other species may explain why, of all animals, humans alone have a language that contains complex grammar. Researchers date the development of human grammar and syntax to between 80,000 and 100,000 years ago, which makes it a relatively recent evolutionary advance. It was also one that probably greatly enhanced human intellect.