Quote:
Originally Posted by MattyC
Even the intelligence question for me can get muddied. Every species has natural tendencies, that we don't have, built into their physiology. Birds fly south, to some predetermined destination, every year, along the same path without even really being "taught" it. My dog can differentiate between cars that are minutes from my house purely by, what must be, differences in sound, and recognize them as cars that he knows (IE he will begin getting excited that my brother is coming home probably 5-10 minutes before he walks in the door). Is that intelligence any more or less what we have? Sure we can build civilizations, but so can ants (and much more efficiently).
Is that intelligence that much different than our own? Is it the very fact that we can KNOW things and choose to reject them a sign of intelligence? And through that rejection we adapt our environment vs adapting ourselves? (IE, it's pretty easy to see that people exist in places which they should not. Animals tend to leave their habitats when that happens, but we seem to stay and try to adapt our surroundings to suit us.
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Well yes of course some animals have adaptations that we don't. Your dog recognizing a sound, I wouldn't call that intelligence so much as a reaction. A lot of what you describe is instinct, but it could also be placed no the intelligence spectrum. Plenty of animals live in places they shouldn't and evolve to it or die out.
I guess my point is we aren't all that much different from animals, what sets us apart is what I mentioned before.