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"A team of researchers counted the number of neurons in dog and cat brains and found one had twice as many as the other." Guess which one! The answer is found

"A team of researchers counted the number of neurons in dog and cat brains and found one had twice as many as the other." Guess which one! The answer is found here: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/dog-cat-brains-neurons-intelligence-study-spd https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/dog-cat-b...

PurpleRamen 4y ago
Isn't that as pointless as comparing clock rates of different CPU-families?
- jononomo 4y ago
  No
  - PurpleRamen 4y ago
    Because all brains are working the same? No difference in "architecture", strategies, neurons, biology, chemistry, whatever?
    - navjack27 4y ago
      Yeah my brain is a netburst. Not even joking. Context switches make me have to completely flush my pipeline. But once I get going on something my pipeline is pretty deep and my clock rate can get pretty high.
mirror_neuron 4y ago
Neuron count is strongly correlated with body size, and does not necessarily correspond to what we like to call “intelligence” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4244864 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4244864
- bpodgursky 4y ago
  Ok but body size also corresponds somewhat closely with what we call intelligence within similar classes of animal. Great apes are smarter than small apes. Big birds are generally smarter than small birds. Elephants are smarter than deer.
Damogran6 4y ago
African Greys have a brain the size of a walnut...mine is freekin' SMART.
- bpodgursky 4y ago
  Yes, but African Greys also have among the largest brains of all birds. You can't necessarily compare bird brains to whale brains, but within birds (or really any similar class of animal) neurons seems to directly correlate with perceived intelligence.
abudabi123 4y ago
A spermwhale's brain is about the size of a basketball. An infographic for all brains and how their neurons are divided up in special domains, the ratio of brain size to body size, etc, would be interesting to see.
- galaxyLogic 4y ago
  > A spermwhale's brain is about the size of a basketball Well said. Here's another expression I often use: Stupider than Jupiter! Jupiter is big but not very intelligent as far as we know.

PurpleRamen 4y ago

Isn't that as pointless as comparing clock rates of different CPU-families?

jononomo 4y ago
No
- PurpleRamen 4y ago
  Because all brains are working the same? No difference in "architecture", strategies, neurons, biology, chemistry, whatever?
  - navjack27 4y ago
    Yeah my brain is a netburst. Not even joking. Context switches make me have to completely flush my pipeline. But once I get going on something my pipeline is pretty deep and my clock rate can get pretty high.

mirror_neuron 4y ago

Neuron count is strongly correlated with body size, and does not necessarily correspond to what we like to call “intelligence” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4244864 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4244864

bpodgursky 4y ago
Ok but body size also corresponds somewhat closely with what we call intelligence within similar classes of animal. Great apes are smarter than small apes. Big birds are generally smarter than small birds. Elephants are smarter than deer.

Damogran6 4y ago

African Greys have a brain the size of a walnut...mine is freekin' SMART.

bpodgursky 4y ago
Yes, but African Greys also have among the largest brains of all birds. You can't necessarily compare bird brains to whale brains, but within birds (or really any similar class of animal) neurons seems to directly correlate with perceived intelligence.

abudabi123 4y ago

A spermwhale's brain is about the size of a basketball. An infographic for all brains and how their neurons are divided up in special domains, the ratio of brain size to body size, etc, would be interesting to see.

galaxyLogic 4y ago
> A spermwhale's brain is about the size of a basketball Well said. Here's another expression I often use: Stupider than Jupiter! Jupiter is big but not very intelligent as far as we know.