- Joined
- Sep 2, 2008
- Messages
- 600
did you read the article about the jumping spider? it def didn't lack memory or organization.I think that between two Ts of the same sp, the biggest one should be smarter!
Some spiders are actually able to solve complex problems, but they lack the memory and general organisation of mammals and else.
Dolphins are super bright, but the reason man outshone them is 1) we have hands so we could develop tools to ease our lives, but also knowledge transmission devices that helped us to go beyond HERE and NOW 2) a language with a syntax allowing us to inform others of events not occuring or objects not present at the moment.
intelligence is far too vague to argue with any real significance... according to dictionary.com, it is "capacity for learning, reasoning, understanding, and similar forms of mental activity; aptitude in grasping truths, relationships, facts, meanings, etc." by that definition, it could come to mean and be measured in a ton of diff ways...
so does ease of life really equate intelligence? some of the big machines we build make it really easy to destroy a forest. does that make us more intelligent? what about the guns that make murder easier? what about the diseases we can to cultivate to kill?
i dunno.