bluefugue

I think Undercurrent has a point though, pz. Intelligence can be more versatile than other adaptive traits. It has allowed us to mimic the biological traits of other species (flight, fast land-speed, night vision, radar, etc.). And to create yet others that seem to elude other species (i.e. space flight).

[ September 04, 2002: Message edited by: IesusDomini ]</p>

Dr S

(I) Koko seemed self-aware to me, though I think some have argued her behavior amounts to little more than "circus training" to get the results the scientists want, etc.
(S) Since I'm one of her "circus trainers" I can say without reservation that she is completely selfaware.

On July 4 she turned 31. Dr Patterson asked her 'what does she get on her birthday?" She answered juice, cake, nuts, toys. Then she got this sad look on her face and she wouldn't talk. Finally she said that she "got old!" And she mopped around for hours feeling sad that she was getting old.

When Michael the gorilla was only eight he awoke one night screaming. He had had a nightmare. He kept signing "blood, blood, blood". When he calmed down he told the night caretaker what he had dreamed. When he was two, in the Congo, he was on his mother's back while she was crashing through the forest running from poachers. She was shot and the poachers grabbed him. They held on to their valuable prize as they cut off his mother's head in front of him.
He was up till dawn, on the night of the dream in Northern California, crying for his mother.

Vesica

Our intelligence, ceativity and adaptability have given us a much better foothold on survival as humans but I question some of the examples used:

How does air travel, tanks, or space flight contribute to improving a single human's chance of survival or reproduction??

When it comes to ourselves we completly reframe the question of useful adaptations or degree of development. Animals we define in terms of survival and long term good of the species....We rarely view our own development in such a light because it seems insulting or degrading to judge ourselves on these terms.

I say Hurrah for our technology and development...without it we would be much fewer in number considering the pathetic state we enter this world in, our stunning lack of defenses against cold, heat, sun exposure etc., and our reproductive rate vs. infant mortality rate....

Tom Sawyer

As Undercurrent mentioned in his post, although other animals have natural advantages that outdo us in some areas our use of technology outdoes their natural advantages. Our use of technology is due to our level of intelligence.

Some species developed claws to attack prey and stop themselves from becoming prey; we developed the long, pointy stick to overcome this - ours worked better. Some species developed wings to be able to stay out of the reach of predators; we developed the ability to throw our pointy stick into the air to overcome this - ours worked better.

So, yes, we are a more advanced species than anything else because the major evolutionary advantage that has developed in humans - heightened intelligence and the ability to use that intelligence to develop tools - is a superior evolutionary advantage than anything had by any other species.

Starboy

Perhaps we are advanced, or maybe we are full of it. It is hard to tell. Ask me a hundred million years from now.

pz

However, and this is a big however, if brains and technology are such great and powerful solutions, how come no other species has evolved them?

Take a look at <a href="http://www.jayhosler.com/world.jpg" target="_blank">this cartoon</a>. It illustrates another point: being big and strong and fast and perceptive aren't the be-all and end-all of evolution. Surviving is. We're too young a species to be beating our chests with pride and boasting about our evolutionary success, because we could very well be extinct tomorrow (on an evolutionary scale). The fact that we're changing our environment so fast and so catastrophically does not bode well for our ability to adapt to those changes.

Dr S

It seems to keep coming around to humans are the best because, judged on a human scale, we are the most human-like of any animal.

Sounds good, think I'll try my hand at the same tactic.
As far as humans go I am the absolute very tip-top best. Because I have more of the attributes that make me like me than any of you do.
The Supremacy of Humans...er, make that Dr S as a species. Has a nice ring to it, don't ya think?

GeoTheo

Just out of curiosity do you have really big head and do chicks dig it?

Dr S

XXL
I have to keep a stout stick nearby at all times in case they start getting unruly

Undercurrent

That's terribly false. There are quite obviously things that we value in an organism that we don't already have. We would like to not have to worry about disease, but we can't. The "not worrying about disease metric" could hardly be said to be us looking at ourselves and saying, "x% of humans die of some kind of disease, so that must be ideal."

The reality of the matter is that we, as a species, are terribly effective at obtaining those things that we value. That's not arrogance, and it's not an implication that we are perfect and don't have any challenges ahead of us, or "chest beating", but a realistic assesment of reality.

Of course, what we value is coloured by a human perspective, and you might expect that other species might have different values, but I'm sure a wolf would love to be as fast as a car when hunting prey, or binghorn sheep as strong as a tank when butting heads for mates.

m.