Animal Intelligence

[DFINITLYDISTRUBD]

1. Animals can and do use tools

 

2. Animals express emotion

 

3. Animals seek to entertain themselves on occasion therefore must get bored

boredom comes from monotony...a lack of inteligence to me would never lead to boredom as the monotonous events would perpetualy seem new...as part of intelligence is the ability to learn and remember.

 

4. Animals seek to please their masters and thus gain meaningfull companionship and tasty treats while avoiding angry voices and the occasional smack on the bottom.

 

I'm fairly sure the average Lab is more intelligent than the average bloke:hihi:

i think intelligence resides only in the realm of humans.

our thoughts, our comunication, our feelings, our building capibillities, our lack of contentment.

Why is the lack of contentment a sign of intelligence? It would seem to me that the opposite would be true.:)

[Turtle]

I watched the PBS program Monkey In The Mirror sometime last week and as I recall one difference from human intelligence revealed in monkey (bonobos & chimps I think?) experiments was the the inability to know what another individual is thinking. I can't find a good synopsis of the show to pin it down any better, but here's a lead: >> NATURE: Monkey in the Mirror - Recognizing Ourselves

 

The search wasn't completely fruitless however, as I ran across this gem:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/03/12/reviews/000312.12pagelt.html

...The whole issue of whether or not language is the defining difference between the other animals and us is complex and highly controversial. Hauser does not sidestep this issue, but he does question its relevance. ''Several authors claim that animal thought is limited or nonexistent because animals lack language,'' he writes. ''In light of recent findings in the study of animal cognition, I argue that language is not necessary for certain kinds of thought, and that the most profitable comparison among species is between animals and human infants.'' We are reminded of Darwin, who wrote in ''The Descent of Man'' (1871) that the difference between human and animal cognition is ''certainly a matter of degree and not one of kind.'' ...

 

:) Stupid freakin' New Dork Times! :D Visit a link of theirs you get from Google more than a couple times and your access to the article gets blocked by a page demanding you join! Behind the times is what they are. Anyway, I can't properly credit that quote now to either a book title or the author. Talk about stupid animal behavior; it's every monkey for themself! :D Copy & paste everything on the first visit is my new credo! :)