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This is the old bit > Some researchers, for example, propose that while humans have a “true” understanding of numerical concepts, animals only appear to be dis
by wombatmobile 5y ago
This is the old bit
> Some researchers, for example, propose that while humans have a “true” understanding of numerical concepts, animals only appear to be discriminating between groups of objects based on quantity when they’re instead relying on less abstract characteristics, like size or color.
It's a cognitive bias. People have this because their model of the world is ego centric with themselves as hero and Number 1, and animals far below.
- crakenzak 5y agoI found the book Sapiens does wonders in shattering this objectively incorrect world view. We are alongside all other animals, with some skills much worse than other animals, some much better. Nothing more than that.
- njarboe 5y agoI found the book "The Beginning of Infinity" shattered this objectively incorrect world view (and a few others). :)
- notsureaboutpg 5y agoReading Sapiens left me with exactly the opposite world view. At the end of the day, no animal in history has a history even close to the one written up in Sapiens.
- philipov 5y agoThere are some interesting ideas in Sapiens (which I've already been exposed to elsewhere) but I couldn't tolerate the breathless tone of the book. It was written in the same rhetorical style as one of those History Channel documentaries about how Aliens built the Pyramids.
- MichaelEstes 5y agoI don't know if I'd call that objectively incorrect, maybe slightly pessimistic, but do you live in the US? A large percentage of people here were very ok with a smaller percentage of people dying so that their own lives wouldn't be inconvenienced, people have that world view even with their own species.