Science
Related: About this forumWhich Animal Will Develop Human-Level Intelligence in the Future?
By Daniel Kolitz on 28 Aug 2019 at 1:00AM
Animals that think and talk like humans have long enchanted the publicin the form of myths, childrens books, and overrated TV shows. Somehow even the most mundane aspects of daily lifepaying taxes, or preparing sandwiches, or staring at yourself in the mirror with a drained, sallow look and thinking, who am I, how did I get here, etc.are infinitely more amusing when its a squirrel whos doing them. But will there ever be a day when this endlessly renewable source of joy/delight will be available outside of entertainment? When you can simply stroll into your closest park to watch two animals grumbling about the weather? Andif sowhich animal will be the first to develop this human-like intelligence? For this weeks Giz Asks, we reached out to a number of animal experts to find out.
Suzana Herculano-Houzel
Associate Professor, Psychology, Vanderbilt University, and the author of The Human Advantage: A New Understanding of How Our Brain Became Remarkable
Theres no easy answer to this one. First, because it depends on how you define intelligence. Plenty of animals out there have the same capabilities that we have, at least in terms of direct problem solving, visual memory, hierarchical planning, etc. As for what animal comes closest to humans in terms of numbers of cortical neuronsand therefore supposedly in the extent of their biological capabilitiesthat would be gorillas and orangutans. But notice that they live much shorter lives, and have much more limited cultures; their societies have not been as organised as ours, as complex as ours, for as long as ours has. So theres really no straightforward comparison.
Are there animals out there that could learn to do things that we do? The answer is definitely yes. Look up Ayumu, the video game-playing Japanese chimpanzee. She beat college students at the gameuntil somebody decided to give graduate students a fair chance by letting them practice for just as long, and then, it was a tie.
More:
https://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2019/08/which-animal-will-develop-human-level-intelligence-in-the-future/
Skittles
(153,160 posts)our fears they will cuss like sailors
- Jack Handey
lapfog_1
(29,199 posts)and all of those cute flips and sounds they make will finally be interpreted as:
"So Long and Thanks for All the Fish".
Skittles
(153,160 posts)a SeaWorld worker said, "Mr. Handey, dolphins only like fish!" So I said, "Sure, they only like fish, if that's all you feed them."
- Jack Handey
Meadowoak
(5,545 posts)My guess would be the dog.
ZZenith
(4,122 posts)Four times a day I feed him food I had to buy with my hard-earned money and he thanks me by crapping in my yard, which I then have to clean up.
rampartc
(5,407 posts)the breeding of pachyderms and equines is too closely controlled.
felines and canines are too closely associated with a suicidal species.
that leaves rodents, octopi, and hymenoptera.
if ufos are landing on earth today and asking "take me to your leader, they most likely mean the gueen ant.
eShirl
(18,491 posts)Last edited Wed Aug 28, 2019, 07:12 AM - Edit history (1)
they're up to something, man
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2018/03/year-of-the-bird-brains-intelligence-smarts/
Beartracks
(12,814 posts)==========
lastlib
(23,226 posts)Devoid of intelligence. eom
Throck
(2,520 posts)Vogon_Glory
(9,117 posts)Theyve done just about as good a job of adapting to suburban environments as old-world monkeys in South Asia and theyre better able to tolerate cold weather.