DailyDirt: Evolution Made Some Smart Stuff Other Than Us
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
We’ve pointed out some smart birds recently, but we shouldn’t leave out the other smart critters out there. They might be smart enough to be offended, after all. So here are a few more examples of animals that might be able to look at themselves in the mirror and recognize they’re still alone.
- Here’s a list of 9 other species that exhibit some form of intelligence that we’ve actually observed. It’d be a more impressive list if there were a way to really quantify and rank the varying degrees of intelligence, but then humans might not look so good on such a scale… [url]
- I think someone snuck in their pet dog into this photo gallery of smart animals (all with human-granted names). Apsalah the orangutan seems a bit over-represented, too. [url]
- A few types of parasitic fungus can turn ants into zombie-slaves. Maybe it’s not intelligence, but these fungi are often cited as an example of intelligent design (though doesn’t explain why an intelligent designer would ever create such a roundabout process). [url]
- To discover more biological phenomena, check out what’s currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]
As always, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.
Filed Under: animals, evolution, fungus, intelligence, smart animals
Comments on “DailyDirt: Evolution Made Some Smart Stuff Other Than Us”
I hate the whole “intelligent animals” thing. It is about as unrigorous as can be. What does it mean to be intelligent? How do you make it on the list? Some guy just kind of thinks x y or z is intelligent and puts together the list with no regard for validity… Give me the Turing test any day. At least it can be operationalized.
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Animal X Classic – May 1, 1999 Chupacabras.
Upload by: AnimalXTV
Those are some intelligent animals LoL
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except you cannot do the turing test either, so does that make you stupid?
BTW: what do you think HUMANS ARE ??? are they not animals?
Every plant and animal has a level of consciencness and intelligence, they have ability to sense and percieve their environment.
How does a plant know to grow ‘up’ or turn towards the sun, if that is not some form of intelligence, and ability to sense its environment.
Sure a plant cannot work out what the sun is, or not to build a computer, but it has a form of intelligence.
And sometimes I even expect a higher level of world knowledge and intelligence than some that post here.
As always, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.
How do they do that, when I see a ‘good’ techdirt article I will believe that.
How about finding out what animals on earth, apart from Humans that “COOK THEIR OWN FOOD” !!
They exist.
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You have watched the Youtube video showing Koko cooking haven’t you?
Design
“(though doesn’t explain why an intelligent designer would ever create such a roundabout process)”
The only reasons I can think of would be to give their lives some form of purpose, and also…to have something to laugh at 🙂
Joshua Klein on the intelligence of crows
‘Talking’ gorilla demands dentist
Wild crows inhabiting the city use it to their advantage – David Attenborough – BBC wildlife
Upload by: BBC Worldwide
What is intelligence?
It’s what you need to know to survive, grow and live. Not much else.
A tree needs no more intelligence than to know what the dirt is and where the bright light is, and what direction is “up”.
As for communication, many animals and plants have a wide range of communication methods to convey very accurate and specific information. Again, required to survive.
Many animals have very specific calls and warning’s for specific forms of threats, they dont just say “watch out”, they say, “there is a lion in that direction, its x distance away and coming closer’ type of thing.
It’s hubris to try to define a ‘level’ of intelligence between species, or to try to seperate ‘humans’ from ‘animals’.
I like that comment “chimps have 98% of the same DNA as humans”, yes that is true.
Humans has 33% of the SAME DNA as a carrot too !!. So what.
they put a cat and a sqeurall for intelligence, you’re joking,
Dogs yes, dogs have evolved to be able to interect with humans, and they are very good at detecting human emotions, just as many humans are capable of detecting dog emotions.
Dogs and humans have a high level of communication, and dogs and detect facial expressions of humans, something no other animal can do.
So a dog would probably have a high EQ and an average IQ, as anyone who owns dogs would know.
Cats are NOT that smart, they are adaptable.
What about birds that can fly thousands of miles and find the exact place they need to, or birds that go out to sea for a long time, to be able to find their next amounst thousands in the same place.
Or as I said, the animals that COOK THEIR OWN FOOD, if that is not intelligence I do not know what is.
I did not know of any animals apart from humans that cook, but I now know different 🙂
Dolphins have a bigger brain than humans, it is quite possible they have different forms of intelligence and higher intelligence than humans.
“Neanderthal cranial capacity is thought to have been as large as that of a Homo sapiens, perhaps larger, indicating their brain size may have been comparable, as well. In 2008, a group of scientists created a study using three-dimensional computer-assisted reconstructions of Neanderthal infants based on fossils found in Russia and Syria, showing that they had brains as large as modern humans’ at birth and larger than modern humans’ as adults”
So it looks like we were not even the smartest humans!!! 🙂
So next time you are called a neanderthal, consider it a compliment. 😉
Intelligent design - yea right
humans are a poor guage of intelligence, we are still basically cave men, who cannot even break away from burning dead shit for our primary energy source.
We appear to have no idea about sustainability, or an ability to live within our own environment.
We do not care at all about the future, we consider ‘we’ll be dead so who cares’ about our children or future generations.
Those future generations will look at us, and how we used up all our oil reserves to burn and screw up the atmosphere, the same way we look at cave me, or worse.
And we consider ourselves an ‘intelligent’ species, stating we are somehow ‘better’ than other animals because we can do more ‘tricks’ then other animals can do.
Our ‘so called’ intelligence will probably be our own downfall.
Or are we just waiting for the 4 hourse men and come and save all the pure of heart?
human intelligence
50%human use only1%of dr mind n others even less