Elijah

If an average person lived a 1000 productive years he would probably be the smartest person on the planet. If an ape lived a 1000 productive years he could probably get pretty good with some basic tools. If a dog lived a 1000 productive years then he would have some pretty good tricks up his sleeve. If a parrot lived a thousand years a pretty extensive vocabulary it could have. Do you see the point I'm trying to make? Learning is lifelong so it has it's basis in how long the life is.

If you lived a 1000 years and the last few years your mind craps out with your body doesn't really matter for the conversation.

ericmurphy

So humans are far from the longest-lived organisms on the planet? Why, Elijah, are they the smartest?

This idea that because humans are smart, they must once have lived for centuries is one of the less impressive hypotheses biblical literalists have ever come up with that I'm aware of.

Elijah

Random mutations causing a big brain making us super smart makes me shrug to, so to each, what makes sense to them.

We are long lived when it comes to animals. Only a couple of turtles and couple of whales that can get the opportunity to blow out as many birthday candles as us. Some plants can kick our butt though.

ck1

Actually, one study came to just that conclusion:

http://mcb.berkeley.edu/courses/mcb1...tedman2004.pdf

A mutation in MYH16 produced a decrease in the muscle involved in mastication in primates. This removed an "evolutionary constraint on encephalization" permitting increase in cranium and brain size.

Sorry for responding to off-topic comment.

VoxRat

Don't forget tube worms. They must be the smartest critters of them all, what with life spans up to 250 years.

Faid

Only your mind would start to crap out from the first years, Elijah. Unless if, like I said, you can explain, not only how humans of that age managed to stay alive, but also how they managed to negate or postpone the very process af aging, and have, say, 100-yearolds looking like teens.

Good luck with that.

As for animals becoming smarter if they lived for 1000 years, it is as chimeric as the rest of your claims, but I wonder how you think that, say, an individual dog's brain would actually get bigger from living longer. I mean come on.

Elijah

Tube worms are closer to plants. How could they learn? Productive lives. If any animal does nothing, observes nothing then it's not going to do much mental development.

Like I said there are exceptions to the rules but almost always with reason.

Elijah

Why would your mind start to crap out from the first few years? Mental development seems pretty stable until the final stages of life when health is gone and even then lots and lots and lots of old peoples bodies fall apart and their minds are just fine. And there are some who in their early ages their brains for one reason or another fall apart on them.

I'm a Lamarkist even if the animal's brain doesn't get physically bigger or more developed throughout it's own life (which it could) then the genetic disposition can be passed on and in earlier development the offspring can develop more freely.

Sauron

Says who?
You?

What are your professional qualifications that allow you to reclassify tube worms?

Elijah

Their nature and behavior classifies them as such... for me. Not a professional of any sorts. The line between animal and plants gets blurred near simple organisms, depends on what you use as the divide between the two. For the conversation at hand the tube worm is closer to a plant because they are stationary and are incapable of receiving any real stimuli.