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Originally Posted by Cynosure
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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Because they lack the nerve connections required to use their muscles on a prolonged low force fine motor skill. A desktop computer could easily be designed to be monkey-assembleable if there were some incentive to do so.
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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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I would have no problems with this. You are looking at intelligence all wrong...simple feedback loop problem solving, like flying a plane, is easy for neural networks like brains. It's much much harder computationally to fly a bird than fly a plane.
A thin layer of brain cells in a dish can learn to fly a plane, so a monkey is practically overengineered.
You should look into the uses of animals in industry before you make sweeping generalizations. In many cases, it is cheaper to train pigeons to sort parts than it is to built robots to do the same (and much cheaper than hiring humans), and they have better accuracy.
The only thing that separates us from other animals is our communication ability. That's it. Without our advance level of communication, and the ability to build up a repository of knowledge, and not have to start from scratch every generation, we'd be hosed.
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Compare the likes of the Hoover Dam to what dams beavers can build.
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OK, one beaver vs one cynosure in a dam building contest. No tools allowed that you don't make yourself on site. And....FIGHT!
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Compare the likes of a modern-day skyscraper to what nests birds can build.
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I find the nests more impressive
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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.
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The extremely well engineered passive heating and cooling systems and complex passageway organization of termite mounds still baffles us, and is lightyears ahead of our city (and building) designs.
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Biomimicry’s Cool Alternative: Eastgate Centre in Zimbabwe
The Eastgate Centre in Harare, Zimbabwe, typifies the best of green architecture and ecologically sensitive adaptation. The country’s largest office and shopping complex is an architectural marvel in its use of biomimicry principles. The mid-rise building, designed by architect Mick Pearce in conjunction with engineers at Arup Associates, has no conventional air-conditioning or heating, yet stays regulated year round with dramatically less energy consumption using design methods inspired by indigenous Zimbabwean masonry and the self-cooling mounds of African termites!
Termites in Zimbabwe build gigantic mounds inside of which they farm a fungus that is their primary food source. The fungus must be kept at exactly 87 degrees F, while the temperatures outside range from 35 degrees F at night to 104 degrees F during the day. The termites achieve this remarkable feat by constantly opening and closing a series of heating and cooling vents throughout the mound over the course of the day. With a system of carefully adjusted convection currents, air is sucked in at the lower part of the mound, down into enclosures with muddy walls, and up through a channel to the peak of the termite mound. The industrious termites constantly dig new vents and plug up old ones in order to regulate the temperature.
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We will probably not achieve that level of widespread architectural sustainability in my lifetime.
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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.
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Here's the thing: Humans are animals. We're pretty successful ones, by a lot of measures, but there isn't anything that actually separates us in any sort of meaningful way. We are a collection of useful abilities that have allowed us to survive and thrive, but we don't really have anything unique about us....just about every single thing we can do, some animal can also. We share 100% of our anatomy with various animals, we share brain areas, although some are more developed in humans than other species. Saying humans are superior to animals is ignoring the fact that WE ARE ANIMALS.