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Originally Posted by shakran
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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Eh? Man, you come to some far out conclusions.
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Originally Posted by shakran
So apparently your sole measure of intelligence is whether or not a creature can stick a video card into a slot.
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It was just an example I gave, and was not meant to be the focal point of my entire argument here.
But tell me: If assembling a desktop computer is so simple, why can't monkeys be taught to do it, and on a consistent basis?
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Originally Posted by shakran
Monkeys can fly airplanes which is much more complicated than throwing together a PC.
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And I suppose you're confident enough in a monkey's intelligence, that you would allow one to fly a plane with you in the passenger's seat?
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Originally Posted by shakran
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."
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What a foolish line of argument you're taking. Look at the things human beings have invented, designed, built, and modified on this world, compared to what animals are capable of. Compare the likes of the Hoover Dam to what dams beavers can build. Compare the likes of a modern-day skyscraper to what nests birds can build. Compare the likes of New York City, with its subways and infrastructure, to what tunnels and structures that the smartest of burrowing animals are able to build. My God, the difference between what humans can create, compared to what animals can create, is astronomical! (And, as you know, we humans can
destroy, too. We could destroy practically all life on this planet, if we chose to.)
I don't measure an animal's intelligence based so much on how similar to us it behaves, as I do on what that animal is able to create and achieve with its intelligence. And in that regard, for sure, animals are far, far inferior to human beings.