Over the years I have wondered about evolutionary forces and what is going on with them right now. It seems impossible to tell what forces will shape the plant and animal life of the future.
However, I have imagined that some other animal is ripe for gaining the ability to think even as we speak. So, will it be the case that one day humans (in whatever state) will share the Earth with another animals that can reason and communicate?
What are your thoughts on this and which animal(s) do you imagine could evolve into a reasoning being, and why?
At home I still have the two Teddy Bears that were given to me when I was just a baby. Those guys got me through some rough times and I believe made me the snuggler that I am today.
If you are correct, I hope that the bears of the future like to cuddle with small children.
I may look into getting frozen if this is the going to be the future.
Well.
Mountain gorrillas already are capable of learning sign language. I’ve heard estimates of their intellect being about that of a 5 year old. Not a huge leap backwards from us, when you look at the massive greyscale of intellectual capacity displayed throughout nature.
But gorillas are like us in that they are practically the same animal, and as such our brains work in similar enough ways that we can recognise what we percieve to be intelligence in them.
Dolphins have larger brains than us. It could be that they are far more, or at least equally as, intelligent as us. But our massive differences in brain structure and activity would make recognising such intelligence nearly impossible, because we measure intelligence to our own standard.
Very difficult question. I am half way between thinking that animals have no soul, and half way to thinking that they could evolve into speaking creatures, with self awareness.
last thing i heard the brain size of dolphins was explained as they need it mostly for their sonar and are not really that intelligent
they’re still cute though
There may be other species that eventually develop sentience (as we define it), but whatever that species may be, we won’t coexist with it. Man wouldn’t tolerate a competing sentient species. We can’t even tolerate ourselves. But the evolutionary process favors intelligence as a likely mutation, so something will eventually replace us assuming nature can repair the damage we will do enough to support more than microbial life forms.
Good question - I think if you throw the IQ tests out the window you can practically equate species-intelligence not with the ability to adapt to the enviroment - but rather with the ability to adapt the enviroment to themselves. Intelligence at its most basic = The range of stuff you can do/make.
Which makes termites and beavers smarter than dolphins and gorrillas.
Abstract intelligence coupled with a physique able to easily manipulate objects - is a sure fire winner. It allows the creature to diversify its habitats - survive in and exploit a greater territory than its more niche-inhabiting rivals. A Jaguar may win in a straight contest with Woody Allen, but not if Woody Allen sets the deathmatch in Antartica, and wears furs and Kevlar.
LOL, many mentally retarded humans have larger than average brains, and Einstein’s brain was smaller than the average human. You might want to peruse Stephen J. Gould’s The Mismeasure of Man regarding this.
Hum, do critters create art, think regarding the beauty of nature, the sublime, the aesthetics, justice, injustice, rights, secular and totalitarian governments that now exist? Is there any evidence of this? I am really asking, have researched a bit, but have not found any evidence of such.
Doc - 100,000 years is an eyeblink in evolutionary terms, and time alone is not enough to provoke the species-wide adoption of beneficial mutation anyway, there needs to be a reason.
Stress the Gorrilla population as a whole, deplete a certain foodstuff, add a certain new predator, remove an essential part of there habitat - and that will push adaption. Change nothing - and the satus-quo prevails, mutation being unwelcome rather than a necessity. Nothing changes without a spike up the butt.
Frankly, I wonder if an animal like the Border Colley wouldn’t be ripe for increased mental faculties. It’s a dog that can respond to over 300 different words and is supposed to be the smartest dog. I assume, that through breeding, we helped it to get that way. The fact of the matter is that its traits got selected because it was interacting with humans (the most successful creature) and we fostered and protected it. Because of the way they “are†it has helped them to survive.
Meanwhile the gorilla is not really doing much to get along in the world and at least some of them are dying out.
I imagine a world where people and dogs hang out together, have fun, and enjoy snacks. Seriously though, I wonder if an animal that really seems to work with people isn’t the next in line.
Forget evolution - too slow - it’s not going to happen without major advances in genotechnology - and a whole bunch of government licences which will never be issued except for military purposes.
Look kids - get it through your heads - None of our furry friends will ever get beyond the bottom sniffing stage and start playing cluedo with us in wine-bars.
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Yes, there are smart pooches, but do they, or will they ever, have the ability to appreciate the aesthetics that humans do? Possible, hell, do we ever know what will happer eventually, and we, (all currently living people) ever see this? No.
Nope, as their habitat is being destroyed and they are being killed by poarchers. National Geographic has run many articles regarding this.
I see what you mean, but I doubt it. In any case, many humans and critters do “hang-out” together. I sure miss my Rott, sweet old pooch, who my two cats bullied. It was hilarious watching her complain when the cats camped on her pallet and comforter. My significant other and I split a gut laughing as she paced around her bed, while the cats stretched out, bathed, and slept on her bed.
I want an acre of land, critters, a pool, and hate this ratty apartment, I hate apartment living, what a nightmare, living in a box.
As some of you may remember, I spent a fair amount of time working with mentally retarded people, and I must say: they aren’t smart.
So, let’s shoot low, what animal could become, through challenges from the totality of the environment develop a mind at least as smart as a low functioning mentally retarded person?
Stop in at a local pub or sports bar. Listen to the conversation. Watch the behavior. I’ll take the damn dog any day…
I’m still questioning the assumptions behind this. There is nothing to suggest that man is not going to extinct himself - other than over-active ego. Even with a list of potential candidates, evolution simply doesn’t work that way. Evolution is opportunistic, responding to environmental changes and pressures, and the animals that benefit have nothing to do with logical orderly ‘progression’. The next sentient being on the planet could easily be a varient of today’s sea cucumber…
Yes is not the question. Dolphins are the question. Yes is the answer.
There are kinds of proofs, that dolphins are from the most inteligent creatures in the world. I even doubt if they are not smarter than us…? The fact, that their structure is different and we can’t understand them doesn’t mean, that they are stupid. So I say dolphins.
