Dolphins and the definition of intelligence
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=14&click_id=143&art_id=vn20060817031855765C442092
This article brings up something that's been a pet peeve of mine for some time - the definition of intelligence. My own view is that it's the use of a variety of mental abilities and powers for survival. This can include things like deduction, memory, learning speed and ability, etc. And for decades, efforts have been made to quantify intelligence with the brain, whether it's by size, body ratio or convolutions. Convolutions seems to be the best bet, but that leaves us with dolphins as "smart" as us, (which most folks disagree with). But I think how we attempt to measure IQ is really too limited and species-oriented. If you look over our criteria and expectation, it's always based on ourselves, our inability to survive in most of the world's environments without tools and specifically, our opposable thumb. I suspect that dolphins, in their own way, are just as "intelligent" as we are, but it is based on their own circumstances - not ours. Since they have no opposable thumb, it seems likely that their methods of communication and memorization might be amazingly complex, (ESP anyone?), and perhaps too advanced for us to discern. Their psychology would be radically different from ours, due to their environment and thus their approach to and even their definition of "problems" could be vastly different, (hence their "disorganization" as opposed to rats and goldfish.
If you ever look over the criteria for intelligence and the various tests for it, imagine the results if you didn't have an opposable thumb...
People wonder if there's intelligent life in the universe, I wonder if we'd recognize it if we found it.
This article brings up something that's been a pet peeve of mine for some time - the definition of intelligence. My own view is that it's the use of a variety of mental abilities and powers for survival. This can include things like deduction, memory, learning speed and ability, etc. And for decades, efforts have been made to quantify intelligence with the brain, whether it's by size, body ratio or convolutions. Convolutions seems to be the best bet, but that leaves us with dolphins as "smart" as us, (which most folks disagree with). But I think how we attempt to measure IQ is really too limited and species-oriented. If you look over our criteria and expectation, it's always based on ourselves, our inability to survive in most of the world's environments without tools and specifically, our opposable thumb. I suspect that dolphins, in their own way, are just as "intelligent" as we are, but it is based on their own circumstances - not ours. Since they have no opposable thumb, it seems likely that their methods of communication and memorization might be amazingly complex, (ESP anyone?), and perhaps too advanced for us to discern. Their psychology would be radically different from ours, due to their environment and thus their approach to and even their definition of "problems" could be vastly different, (hence their "disorganization" as opposed to rats and goldfish.
If you ever look over the criteria for intelligence and the various tests for it, imagine the results if you didn't have an opposable thumb...
People wonder if there's intelligent life in the universe, I wonder if we'd recognize it if we found it.
posted by mendip at
6:51 AM
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