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Originally Posted by Cynosure
1. Big deal. Today's computers are designed by computers that were originally built by humans, right? And anyway, no computer of today is able to design a new computer all by itself. Humans have to provide the goal and its requirements, and the impetus to achieve those, as well as provide continual imput and guidance throughout the design process. (Not to mention we provide the required manufactured parts, operating power, manual labor, etc.)
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So you're saying that before computers or, to be generous, any modern electronic technology, that humans were no smarter than the animals?
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2. Why is this so impressive? What's far more impressive is, those simulated airplanes and real space capsules were designed and built by humans!
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Because you said:
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Show me a monkey who can be taught to, say, assemble a desktop computer (let alone design one, with all its complex and intricate parts), and on a consistent basis (that is, without the monkey quickly getting bored or distracted, and thus throwing computer parts across the room or smearing his feces over them), and maybe then I'll be impressed.
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So apparently your sole measure of intelligence is whether or not a creature can stick a video card into a slot. Monkeys can
fly airplanes which is much more complicated than throwing together a PC. Your logic is breaking down. The ability to assemble things does not mean you're as intelligent as a human. Monkeys can assemble things. They use tools. Hell there are birds that use tools. The use of tools may be impressive, but it's not an absolute measure of intelligence. One of the failings of humans is that they base their measures of intelligence on the assumption that humans are themselves the smartest things on the planet. That's a fundamentally flawed and circular basis of comparison. 'we're the smartest because we rate a species' intelligence based on how similar to us it behaves."