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I think it's both. You are correct that no individual human could build a spaceship. Our ability to aggregate intelligence across brains and across time is our

I think it's both. You are correct that no individual human could build a spaceship. Our ability to aggregate intelligence across brains and across time is our superpower. But that superpower is open to exploitation. When working together as a group, you can't blindly assume all other members are good faith participants. Doing so would open the species up to being exploited and destroyed by an evolutionary offshoot that parasitized or otherwise took from the group without giving as much in return. In order to aggregate our intelligence across the tribe, we also need a lot of individual level brainpower that we can put to use determine which other humans around us are helpful versus harmful. That same brainpower can also be harnessed to let us solve problems individually. Sure, lots of us would die on a desert island, but that's because surviving on any isolated microclimate is hard. Plenty of animals die on them too! But a solitary human would survive better than you give credit for across a whole range of environments. Any given animal might have some honed instincts to survive in a single climate, but none of them is as plastic and creative as we are.

hoseja 4y ago
What... what do you think psychopath kings/CEOs are.
sdenton4 4y ago
Animals are far smarter than you think, and instinct is far less important than you think. Most animals learn by imitation of their parents or others of their own species. This is a big part of why reintroduction of captive animal populations into the wild is so difficult. And adaptability is highly variable by species; koalas will for quickly without their specific eucalyptus, but raccoons will thrive just about anywhere. As I've read and researched, I've come much closer to the opinion that we're slightly smarter monkeys with writing.
- munificent 4y ago
  > Animals are far smarter than you think I know this is, like, a meme in our culture. And I get that it's important for the pendulum to swing back from the 19th century idea of animals as dumb brutes. But human beings are way fucking smarter than animals when it comes to general plastic intelligence and problem solving. I'm not disparaging animals here, and I'm certainly not saying that we shouldn't appreciate their many capabilities. But humans can do stuff like set up a tarp to collect condensation and understand the chemistry behind phase changes for how that works. Sure, that's because we were taught by prior humans who incrementally figured that out, but no other animal is even capable of being taught anything anywhere near that level of sophistication.

hoseja 4y ago

What... what do you think psychopath kings/CEOs are.

sdenton4 4y ago

Animals are far smarter than you think, and instinct is far less important than you think. Most animals learn by imitation of their parents or others of their own species. This is a big part of why reintroduction of captive animal populations into the wild is so difficult. And adaptability is highly variable by species; koalas will for quickly without their specific eucalyptus, but raccoons will thrive just about anywhere. As I've read and researched, I've come much closer to the opinion that we're slightly smarter monkeys with writing.

munificent 4y ago
> Animals are far smarter than you think I know this is, like, a meme in our culture. And I get that it's important for the pendulum to swing back from the 19th century idea of animals as dumb brutes. But human beings are way fucking smarter than animals when it comes to general plastic intelligence and problem solving. I'm not disparaging animals here, and I'm certainly not saying that we shouldn't appreciate their many capabilities. But humans can do stuff like set up a tarp to collect condensation and understand the chemistry behind phase changes for how that works. Sure, that's because we were taught by prior humans who incrementally figured that out, but no other animal is even capable of being taught anything anywhere near that level of sophistication.