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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (246470)	8/18/2005 2:47:07 PM
From: combjelly	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572326

"Scientifically, I don't know what is the defining distinction that separates human intelligence from the rest of the animals" Ted, you need to get out more. Humans don't have anything that other animals don't also express. The difference is more of degree than of kind. Take abstraction for example. My Rottweiler abstracts just fine. Tell him 'ball' and he will come back with a spherical object, he evens considers deflated balls as a ball. Tell him 'rope' and he will return with something very ropelike. Ditto with 'stick'. While I suppose he could be some sort of canine Einstein, it is a lot more likely that most dogs can do something like this, but because nobody expects them the be capable, no one has actually explored how well mammals can abstract. Or look at bonobos. They have a complex society that shows many elements found in human ones. I personally think Elroy was a bonobo in an earlier incarnation... Frans de Waal has written several very readable books on bonobos and other primates. Frans is great, my wife and I sat down with him and talked for several hours about intelligence in animals. 2think.org

To: tejek who wrote (246470)	8/18/2005 3:55:27 PM
From: d[-_-]b	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1572326

tejek, re: I guess I need to make a distinction when I am talking aobut intelligent life. Most living creatures exhibit some sort of intelligence but to my knowledge, none share the level of intelligence that humans have. Scientifically, I don't know what is the defining distinction that separates human intelligence from the rest of the animals, but its that quality or distinction that I see as being rare The two traits I hear most often are tool making and self awareness.