Corona688

Interesting. I suppose that's one way to see it.. dogs have simply adapted to us so that we enjoy their company and therefore feed them and take care of them, despite the fact that they don't do much in return.

But there's the kicker - If we enjoy their company, maybye we are getting something from the arrangement.

And there's also the question of whether they adapted to us, or we made them the way they are through selective breeding.

And then when you consider things like police-dogs, rescue dogs, and seeing-eye dogs, the whole question becomes really complex. now CATS, those are useless.

Corona688

(italics added by me)

Which humans? I don't think humans are really qualified to differentiate those suitable to survive in nature, only nature can tell us. The hard way.

Anyway, it's an interesting topic; one that's unlikely to be resolved, but fun to talk about anyway. It's true that in the last 100,000 years or so(I think - my timescale could be off), our bone structure's become more refined, like one would see with domestication - our skulls are thinner than our prehistoric ancestors's, for example.

Depends on what you define ability as. Sure, we can't run down and tackle a gazelle to the ground barehanded, but then again, we've never had to. It could be (very arguably) said that the prerequisites for success in our species are now leaning more towards social and technical abilities, but that's a whole other thread.

The reason for our success?

My proposal, is that Human Beings are LAZY.

Instead of coming at every problem headfirst and battering our thick skulls against it until we've broken through, we've found - not better, more elegant, or simpler solutions - but just plain easier ones.

Being chased by a jungle cat? Have you and your buddies throw lots of rocks. Need food? Plant seeds. Need someone to reap the food? Conquer your neighbors, now you've got lots. The solution in these cases isn't necessarily optimum, it's simply the path of least resistance compared to running, huner-gathering, reaping, etc.

Don't know how far one can take this theory, and it's probably been thought of before anyhow, but I think it's interesting anyway...

[ November 05, 2002: Message edited by: Corona688 ]</p>

MadMordigan

My proposal, is that Human Beings are LAZY.

Indeed. If neccessity is the mother of invention, then laziness is the father.

Senorial

Very interesting thread. People have made some good points I have never thought of before.
To give you another Christian fundie type response to this thread (and my first REAL post):
This I totally agree with. Any comparison to humans and animals will have subjective
criteria. Superior is being used quite generally here. As several people have
mentioned before, a fish is superior at swimming, a dog is superior at smelling, a bird
is superior at flying, and my personal favorite, a cat is superior at getting some
morning action.

Humans are more superior than animals, thefore God exists? I have never heard anyone say
this but maybe your just interpreting what I am about to say as such. Christians believe we
are "superior" to animals because we are made in the image of God. The other animals were
not. Some examples of our characterists from being made in the image of God would be
creativity, mercy, language, the desire for truth, etc... But obviously the main reason
I believe it is because it is biblical. Yes, I am just a sad tool of a man that actually
believes the Bible to be true.

(Disclaimer: I am not trying to prove that God is made in the image of man, I am simply
trying to explain why I believe it).

Any reponse to this would be more than welcome. It really is an intruiging subject.

Corona688

Well, this ain't much better, I'm afraid; humans are superior to animals because God created us in His image?
Common responses to this are generally of the form, 'Does God have an appendix?' but I don't think that's really helpful, since these Qualities of God are meant as spiritual ones, not physical ones..
Creativity - Do humans really have the trademark on creativity? Primates, some birds, etc. have shown the ability to create unique solutions to problems given to them.

Mercy - Arguable whether this is really ingrained into humans or not.

Language - lots of animals communicate with sound, but alot of that's just signals, not language... with the large-brained oceanic mammals, like whales and dolphins, though, they seem to have a communication method whose complexity could rival or exceed our own.

Desire for truth - If I speak up on this one, we'll be arguing for weeks.

Well, there's certainly no point trying to change your mind about something you already believe.
Fair enough.

Stew

I would be inclined to agree that humans have a superior human intelligence; as compared to other animals.

On the other hand, at times, I find little evidence to support the notion of "human intelligence".