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> and number two on the intelligence list (however you order it) has barely managed to rub a stick and a rock together. Corvids can solve pretty complex mechan

> and number two on the intelligence list (however you order it) has barely managed to rub a stick and a rock together. Corvids can solve pretty complex mechanical puzzles. They can use tools. They haven't yet had the evolutionary pressure to do anything more elaborate than that. They don't have hands. They can communicate but it's unclear how much bandwidth that communication has. Octopi are also excellent problem solvers and they even pass the mirror test. They have the next best thing to hands but they don't have access to many materials. I don't know how well they communicate. Our main advantage(other than our habitat and our appendages, which other primates share) is not raw intelligence (whoever you define it). Instead, it's the ability to pool multiple brains together and communicate as we are doing so. That means that tiny improvements in cognitive ability have a dramatic amplification factor even over small populations. More recently, we developed the ability to use brains that are long dead through writing. And even more recently, we have been able to use brains that are not even in the same physical location. We are augmenting our brains with machines now (indirectly, for now). None of this would be possible without increasingly complex language. It probably evolved with our brains.

munificent 4y ago
It's certainly the case that our ability to aggregate and compound knowledge is unsurpassed, but I think you aren't giving individuals enough credit either. If you were stranded on a desert island and managed to survive, you could probably start a fire, build shelter, collect rainwater, build tools to fish, and possibly even create a raft (with stored food) to try to get away. No animal would ever do that. You might argue that that's only because you already knew about fire and rafts before getting stranded, but you couldn't even teach any of that to an animal no matter how hard you tried. Animals can definitely learn tools, but even when actively taught by humans the level of intelligence and problem solving they have is dramatically lower than any single typical human.
- fleddr 4y ago
  Unless said island has a vast amount of easy food (say, berries) most modern urban people would simply die and do none of the things you mentioned. Nobody knows how to hunt or fish and you won't have time to figure it out. Further, the "innovative" solutions you use as examples might as well be used to realize how very useless we are without tools, whereas almost every other species survives without them. The reason animals won't learn human things is because they're human things. I imagine dolphins trying to learn you how to swim would conclude that you suck at it.
  - munificent 4y ago
    > Unless said island has a vast amount of easy food (say, berries) most modern urban people would simply die and do none of the things you mentioned. I mean... most animals would drop dead on a desert island. Wolf, giraffe, turtle, pigeon, etc. All toast. Desert islands are, by definition, inhospitable. But a human would show a greater level of adaptability and resourcefulness than any other animal.

munificent 4y ago

It's certainly the case that our ability to aggregate and compound knowledge is unsurpassed, but I think you aren't giving individuals enough credit either. If you were stranded on a desert island and managed to survive, you could probably start a fire, build shelter, collect rainwater, build tools to fish, and possibly even create a raft (with stored food) to try to get away. No animal would ever do that. You might argue that that's only because you already knew about fire and rafts before getting stranded, but you couldn't even teach any of that to an animal no matter how hard you tried. Animals can definitely learn tools, but even when actively taught by humans the level of intelligence and problem solving they have is dramatically lower than any single typical human.

fleddr 4y ago
Unless said island has a vast amount of easy food (say, berries) most modern urban people would simply die and do none of the things you mentioned. Nobody knows how to hunt or fish and you won't have time to figure it out. Further, the "innovative" solutions you use as examples might as well be used to realize how very useless we are without tools, whereas almost every other species survives without them. The reason animals won't learn human things is because they're human things. I imagine dolphins trying to learn you how to swim would conclude that you suck at it.
- munificent 4y ago
  > Unless said island has a vast amount of easy food (say, berries) most modern urban people would simply die and do none of the things you mentioned. I mean... most animals would drop dead on a desert island. Wolf, giraffe, turtle, pigeon, etc. All toast. Desert islands are, by definition, inhospitable. But a human would show a greater level of adaptability and resourcefulness than any other animal.