Quote:
Originally Posted by twistedmosaic
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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Smart ass. I'm comparing the intelligence of all human beings to all other life forms on this planet.
But, so, what? A beaver could build a better damn than me. I bet you I could draw a better picture than any beaver could. I could also write a better essay, compose a better song, and solve mathematical problems far, far better than any beaver could. Hell, I could take on
all the other animals in this world, combined, when it comes to picture drawing, essay writing, music composition, and mathematical problem solving.
Furthermore, if I chose to pursue a dam-building contest with a beaver, I
could acquire the know-how to build tools on-site, along with the know-how to build a primitive dam with those tools. As for the beaver and his dam: I could build a spear to hunt him with, and once he was dispatched, I could tear down his dam. And then there would be
no competition – Cynosure (i.e. a human) takes all!
---------- Post added at 11:35 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:18 AM ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by twistedmosaic
A thin layer of brain cells in a dish can learn to fly a plane, so a monkey is practically overengineered.
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Then why does it take so darn much training (which is not only trying and time intensive, but also pretty costly) to fly a plane? Why is the user manual for Microsoft Flight Simulator so darn thick?
Is it because, oh, there's a whole lot more to flying a plane than maintaining the joystick, throttle, and pedals, and keeping the plane airborne?
Quote:
Originally Posted by twistedmosaic
...just about every single thing we can do, some animal can also.
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Just about every thing, huh? Because, we both know that no animal can fly to the moon unless
we send it there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by twistedmosaic
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.
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If that were the case, China would surely be employing animals to do assembly-line work, and the animal-rights activists be damned.
Quote:
Originally Posted by twistedmosaic
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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Our advance level of communication, and our ability to build up a repository of knowledge, are parts of our intelligence.
Quote:
Originally Posted by twistedmosaic
I find the nests more impressive
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More impressive compared to a sky scraper, how? Aesthetically?
Quote:
Originally Posted by twistedmosaic
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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Insect intelligence, eh? Lightyears ahead of our own, huh?
I see where this debate is going. I'm done, here. (I'd just as soon be debating with the kooks at PETA.)
