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I suspect that we have a very minor advantage that allows us accumulate knowledge across generations better than other species. This is not necessarily an advan

I suspect that we have a very minor advantage that allows us accumulate knowledge across generations better than other species. This is not necessarily an advantage in intelligence. An interesting question is, if we took newborn humans and let them grow up in the wild (somehow assure there survival without contaminating the experiment), would there apparent behavior and intelligence be distinguishable from other animals.

anonymous 13y ago
Humans need to be taught by other humans in order to become human. However, there are tribes of people still living as primitively as possible (i.e. before metallurgy) and the answer seems to be yes - they build houses, make weapons, develop hunting techniques, have religion and use a complex language with which to describe all that to the next generation.
johnsoft 13y ago
Such an experiment would be unethical (for obvious reasons), but many cases have happened "outside the lab" over the years, and when found the people are observed after the fact. There have been many cases where "stray humans" have been taken in and raised by wolves, dogs, or monkeys, and they do take on characteristics and behavior from the environments they grew up in, rather than what we would call normal. A good starting point for reading would be https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_child https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_child I personally would be interested in the opposite experiment - taking a newborn animal, and raising it as a human surrounded by humans and human culture, as much as possible, and observing its acclimation (or lack thereof). I couldn't really answer the question of ethics in this direction, but if it were feasible I think an experiment like that would be very eye-opening into the outer limits of other species' intelligence.
- d23 13y ago
  This has quite obviously been tried before. See Koko the gorilla. Yes, she was able to understand quite a few signs (1000+), but the idea that they have the capability to be anything close to human is clearly not true.
- kbutler 13y ago
  Happens all the time. Dogs. Cats. Birds. Occasional pigs. There have been specific scientific experiments as well, e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washoe_(chimpanzee) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washoe_(chimpanzee)

anonymous 13y ago

Humans need to be taught by other humans in order to become human. However, there are tribes of people still living as primitively as possible (i.e. before metallurgy) and the answer seems to be yes - they build houses, make weapons, develop hunting techniques, have religion and use a complex language with which to describe all that to the next generation.

johnsoft 13y ago

Such an experiment would be unethical (for obvious reasons), but many cases have happened "outside the lab" over the years, and when found the people are observed after the fact. There have been many cases where "stray humans" have been taken in and raised by wolves, dogs, or monkeys, and they do take on characteristics and behavior from the environments they grew up in, rather than what we would call normal. A good starting point for reading would be https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_child https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_child I personally would be interested in the opposite experiment - taking a newborn animal, and raising it as a human surrounded by humans and human culture, as much as possible, and observing its acclimation (or lack thereof). I couldn't really answer the question of ethics in this direction, but if it were feasible I think an experiment like that would be very eye-opening into the outer limits of other species' intelligence.

d23 13y ago
This has quite obviously been tried before. See Koko the gorilla. Yes, she was able to understand quite a few signs (1000+), but the idea that they have the capability to be anything close to human is clearly not true.
kbutler 13y ago
Happens all the time. Dogs. Cats. Birds. Occasional pigs. There have been specific scientific experiments as well, e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washoe_(chimpanzee) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washoe_(chimpanzee)