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I have been seeing alot of stuff lately on elephants, dolphins etc that show compassion for other beings and seem to understand death at some level and mourn the passing of others. I always thought things like this is what separated man from animals but now I am beginning to wonder.
I have been seeing alot of stuff lately on elephants, dolphins etc that show compassion for other beings and seem to understand death at some level and mourn the passing of others. I always thought things like this is what separated man from animals but now I am beginning to wonder.
Elephants and dolphins are both self-aware. Some individuals are much more talented than their peers, but on the whole both species join humans in having an idea of self (and thus others).I have been seeing alot of stuff lately on elephants, dolphins etc that show compassion for other beings and seem to understand death at some level and mourn the passing of others. I always thought things like this is what separated man from animals but now I am beginning to wonder.
Humanity is not merely qualitatively superior to all animals, (as in Humans 100 Chimp 50), but a whole different paradigm, a sort of Prigogine-like leap of organization and complexity far beyond the great apes, dolphins and whales.
It is more than just a question of degree; it is a huge leap of orders of magnitude in complexity and sophistication. There is a vast gulf between the highest of animals and the average human.
Consider the complexity of thought and communication: humans are capable of thinking upon and communicating a virtual infinity of concepts, shaded with thousands of subtle nuances.... no animal can be shown to come even close in thought or communication.
Comparing animals and humans is like comparing a Stone Age flint knife to a 21st century automated machine-tool factory. In a sense they are both TOOLS, yes... but the complexity of one is so far beyond the other than the automated factory would seem like magic to the maker of the stone knife.
Consider art, literature, history, society, government... we organize and operate in realms of complexity and vast numbers of people coordinated into structures beyond the comprehension of apes and whales, who do not communicate beyond basic concepts nor organize larger than small bands.
There simply is no comparison. Humanity may resemble Animal in certain rough ways, but in fact Humanity is something as far beyond animals as computers are beyond stone knives.
What about species like Homo neanderthalensis? Or Homo heidelbergensis?There simply is no comparison. Humanity may resemble Animal in certain rough ways, but in fact Humanity is something as far beyond animals as computers are beyond stone knives.
I have been seeing alot of stuff lately on elephants, dolphins etc that show compassion for other beings and seem to understand death at some level and mourn the passing of others. I always thought things like this is what separated man from animals but now I am beginning to wonder.
If you keep asking questions like this I'll throw my poo at you.
I do not understand how you can say this.The more you study the higher forms of life on planet Earth, the more you realize that the gulf between humans and other animals is really not all that great.
I have been seeing alot of stuff lately on elephants, dolphins etc that show compassion for other beings and seem to understand death at some level and mourn the passing of others. I always thought things like this is what separated man from animals but now I am beginning to wonder.
Humanity is not merely qualitatively superior to all animals, (as in Humans 100 Chimp 50), but a whole different paradigm, a sort of Prigogine-like leap of organization and complexity far beyond the great apes, dolphins and whales.
It is more than just a question of degree; it is a huge leap of orders of magnitude in complexity and sophistication. There is a vast gulf between the highest of animals and the average human.
Consider the complexity of thought and communication: humans are capable of thinking upon and communicating a virtual infinity of concepts, shaded with thousands of subtle nuances.... no animal can be shown to come even close in thought or communication.
Comparing animals and humans is like comparing a Stone Age flint knife to a 21st century automated machine-tool factory. In a sense they are both TOOLS, yes... but the complexity of one is so far beyond the other than the automated factory would seem like magic to the maker of the stone knife.
Consider art, literature, history, society, government... we organize and operate in realms of complexity and vast numbers of people coordinated into structures beyond the comprehension of apes and whales, who do not communicate beyond basic concepts nor organize larger than small bands.
There simply is no comparison. Humanity may resemble Animal in certain rough ways, but in fact Humanity is something as far beyond animals as computers are beyond stone knives.
Don't know, don't really care.
Ooh, ooh OOH OOOH AHHA AH AH AHH!
Me no care, me no likey compared to animal by scientist. Me jelly of scientist brudder.
Then don't post.Don't know, don't really care.
We are just hairless monkeys, that happen to have a genetic defect/advantage and an obscene obsession with toys and tools. Intelligence as you know varies greatly amongst us hairless simians, is just the average mean for us is much greater than the average mean for the rest of the animal kingdom.
USViking said:I do not understand how you can say this.
The human intellect is so much greater than that of any other animal that the difference might justly be called infinite. We can, for example, discover and comprehend the complete functional anatomy down past the molecular level of any species, but no other species can discover and comprehend ours. In another vein there is no limit to the number of tools that human can design and build (all machines are tools), but no other species has any but the most crude and rudimentary tool-making ability. In fact, the list of examples where our intellectual superiority is infinite might itself be infinite.
We are undoubtedly Earth's paramount creature, made so by our fabulous intellect.
Then don't post.
Treat a waitress bad and they spit in your food. One vote for smart monkey.
I have been seeing alot of stuff lately on elephants, dolphins etc that show compassion for other beings and seem to understand death at some level and mourn the passing of others. I always thought things like this is what separated man from animals but now I am beginning to wonder.
I do not understand how you can say this.
The human intellect is so much greater than that of any other animal that the difference might justly be called infinite. We can, for example, discover and comprehend the complete functional anatomy down past the molecular level of any species, but no other species can discover and comprehend ours. In another vein there is no limit to the number of tools that human can design and build (all machines are tools), but no other species has any but the most crude and rudimentary tool-making ability. In fact, the list of examples where our intellectual superiority is infinite might itself be infinite.
We are undoubtedly Earth's paramount creature, made so by our fabulous intellect.
Easy, if you take a step back. Let me preface with this. Probably the biggest inventions of mankind were those that occurred early on. The discovery of how to utilize fire, the creation of simple machines (levers, pulleys, wheels, etc.) or the ability to grow our own food instead of hunting and gathering. These were momentousness advances for us not for the increased technological capabilities, but for ingenuity that it took for humans to create them. It requires an astounding grasp on the external world and an pretty deep understanding of cause and effect to make those happen. Our later inventions where a computer got smaller, a vaccination was discovered, or a space shuttle flew further weren't necessarily the most astounding inventions. We'd have gotten there with or without much innovation. The path had already been set.I do not understand how you can say this.
The human intellect is so much greater than that of any other animal that the difference might justly be called infinite. We can, for example, discover and comprehend the complete functional anatomy down past the molecular level of any species, but no other species can discover and comprehend ours. In another vein there is no limit to the number of tools that human can design and build (all machines are tools), but no other species has any but the most crude and rudimentary tool-making ability. In fact, the list of examples where our intellectual superiority is infinite might itself be infinite.
We are undoubtedly Earth's paramount creature, made so by our fabulous intellect.
I read your post about back pain and the wife's solution you apparently enjoyed smoking. Given your past posts and now this one I'd say the change is noticeable and for the better!!! Keep on truckin through the fog!eace
I'd say the 'gulf' between mankind and the other species on this planet isn't as big as those who would claim we have Divine Dominion over all.
We tend to blur the matter by claiming our acts are intelligent and animals doing the same is instinctual.
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