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Great thinking point at the end: "We always assume that intelligence is responsible for our success," says Hare. "That humans became smarter, which… allowed us
by Gustomaximus 10y ago
Great thinking point at the end:
"We always assume that intelligence is responsible for our success," says Hare. "That humans became smarter, which… allowed us to invent wheels and agriculture and iPhones. But what if that wasn't what happened?"
Hare suspects that, "like the foxes, and like dogs, we became friendlier first, and then got smarter by accident. This would mean that our prosocial skills, the skills that allow for cooperation and friendliness, were what made us successful."
- faitswulff 10y agoThat, and there's some evidence that Neanderthals were physiologically actually smarter than early Homo Sepiens.
- personjerry 10y agoDo you have a source for this?
- bpodgursky 10y agoThe cranial cavities are definitely larger, although it's ambiguous whether that just means better vision. No source on me, but it's not hard to find.
- Gustomaximus 10y agoI had a quick googlefu about this (note quick). The articles I found seemed speculative and nothing concrete to show Neanderthals were smarter. Mainly showing they were more similar to us in tools/clothes but nothing to indicate more advanced/smarter.
- faitswulff 10y agoI forgot to link to what I was thinking of: https://www.quora.com/Were-the-Neanderthals-smarter-than-the-members-of-Homo-sapiens https://www.quora.com/Were-the-Neanderthals-smarter-than-the... Although I had heard speculations of the sort through more reputable sources, I just can't find it at the moment.
- vacri 10y agoA dog with the intelligence of a human still has the problem of having no fine manipulators (hands) with which to assist applying their intelligence on to the world around them.
- nikofeyn 10y agoi have often wondered if something like the orca has reached basically the pinnacle of intelligence for an ocean-dwelling animal due to the restrictions of being in water.
- meric 10y agoI would note squid and octopus have fine manipulators (tentacles) and they are relatively intelligent.
- tbarbugli 10y agoLuckily for us their life span (at least for octopus) is really short :)
- dharma1 10y agoI've often wondered if we had suitable computer-brain interfaces, could we harness octopus brains to process various computational workloads. Like a squishy co-processor
- lawless123 10y agoI wonder could we do the same with humans.
- wuschel 10y agosarcasm on Don't forget, human brains are squishy, too, and there are many more of them! Sarcasm off Not sure if your comment meant to be provocative, or if you just did not think through the ethical considerations of your statement. In fact, I am not sure how well protected octupus as a species are, since they lack a spine.
- restalis 10y agoI thought it's a known fact that people got smarter through social competition. That supports the assumption that people got smarter after they got friendlier, but that was by no means "by accident".
- radarsat1 10y agoThat's what I was thinking too. It seems to me that a certain intelligence might be a requirement for having good social skills, i.e. a good "theory of mind" of individuals around you. Therefore, it would make sense that social skills and intelligence must co-evolve. Total conjecture, of course.
- mrob 10y agoHowever, octopuses are widely considered the smartest invertebrates, and they are solitary creatures. Hunting also exerts selection pressure for higher intelligence. You still need to predict the actions of other species even if you rarely interact with your own.
- sperglord 10y agoThe idea here though is that social success is more than just smiling constantly and having a trustworthy face. There's some cunning involved.
- Pica_soO 10y agoPeople got social by agreeing on a common enemy. To declare social biotope where social skills such as ally building, intrigues and "friendships" exist, the threat of such a common alienation must exist. The hatred and fear where there first.
- konart 10y agoI strongly recommend reading Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari on this (among other) subject.