Humans Vs Animals

Humans are known for a lot of things. Especially technology. A lot of animals though can do what we do. We are not as unique as you would think. Any bets on what animal would rule the world long after we are gone?

www.i-am-bored.com...

Yes, cockroaches number one, bastards are virtually indestructable, breed out of control, and can live for a week without their head. Hideous critters!
There are not enough shoes in the world!

I agree cockroaches are a nuisance. I believe they will be around for another sentient species to step on.

dpending on how we left the earth of course, i would have thought birds would be the ones here long after we've gone.

I've heard some pretty convincing arguments that cephalopods will be the next class to develop high intelligence, some are already surprisingly smart and supposedly over some very long time scales the oxygen content of the atmosphere is projected to increase again which might enourage some octopi to venture onto land in wet salt marshes. From there the varsatility of their limbs and natural intellect would encourage tool use and then BAM! a couple million years later they're swinging through the trees with their tentacles and before you know it they're nuking each other and arguing over who's the biggest infadel.
SImilarly if we ever terraform mars the lower gravity there might encourage them out of the water.
I understand that there is also a species of wild horse that currently appears to be evolving greater intelligence.

[edit on 15-3-2010 by Arkady]

I have sometimes thought birds would be a great candidate Scubagravy. Very interesting Arkady with the cephalapods. Any idea where these wild horses are located? I would love to research it.

Language is the important difference. The ability to relay any conceivable information through any arbitrary medium. This is different than dogs barking and birds chirping. We can refer to any shared concepts even if they are removed from out immediate sensory perception. We can use these shared concepts with any sufficiently intelligent person to describe absolutely anything else, and cause that person to have a new concept. We can also form an infinite number of novel sentances using grammer and our non-infinite vocabulary.

The reason that humans are capable of the things we are is because we can talk. Our brains are not sufficiently more powerful in the sense of raw processing power than the next smartest thing in order to explain the inconceivably large gap between our intelligent behaviors.

No other animal has invented anything more complicated than a stick with spit on it. We have spaceships. Yet our brains aren't thousands of times larger. Language affords a fundamentally new way of doing business. The ratio of a human's brain size to body size versus that same ratio in chimps is about 3 to 1 in our favor. For dolphins it's more like 3 to 2, and they are our nearest rivals in this area. Our advantage in these terms cannot possibly explain the great disparity in our intellectual acheivements.

The reason that language is so great is that I can spend my life learning everything I can about something, and write it down so I don't forget it. Then I can write a book of everything I figured out and give it to you. You can read the book in an afternoon and learn everything that took me many years to figure out. You can read many books writen by many people, and write new books yourself. Before you know it we have schools where we teach information that would have taken thousands of lifetimes to accumulate to kids in just a few years. Then those kids grow up and figure new stuff out and pass it on. Everything anyone figures out can be made availible to anyone else. We can all function as one informational unit because we can talk to eachother and write.

In this way we can increase our knowledge exponentially, and any individual can take advantage of the thinking done by anyone who's ever written anything and anyone alive today who can talk. It compounds at an ever increasing rate.

Thanks for the post Oncereturned. I understand communication is key. It is a very important key for civilization to bloom and develop. So......I am marking you down for Chimpanzee?

Originally posted by Arkady
I've heard some pretty convincing arguments that cephalopods will be the next class to develop high intelligence, some are already surprisingly smart and supposedly over some very long time scales the oxygen content of the atmosphere is projected to increase again which might enourage some octopi to venture onto land in wet salt marshes. From there the varsatility of their limbs and natural intellect would encourage tool use and then BAM! a couple million years later they're swinging through the trees with their tentacles and before you know it they're nuking each other and arguing over who's the biggest infadel.
SImilarly if we ever terraform mars the lower gravity there might encourage them out of the water.
I understand that there is also a species of wild horse that currently appears to be evolving greater intelligence.

[edit on 15-3-2010 by Arkady]

Better Reading than ATS:

Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future (Paperback)
~ Olaf Stapledon (Author)


23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Science fiction / philosophy / spirituality, April 1, 2002
By Kim Boykin (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Last and First Men (SF Masterworks) (S.F.Masterworks) (Paperback)
Wow! Stapledon is an excellent sci fi writer and an excellent philosopher of the human condition.

There are no ordinary characters in this story. The protagonist is humanity, and this is humanity's autobiography. Or perhaps the story is better understood as a family saga, with each succeeding race of humanity as a new character, from the First Men (that's us) through the Last Men in the way far future.

Again and again, over a vast span of time, humanity waxes and wanes, flourishes and is nearly extinguished, sinks to barbarism and rediscovers a religion of selfless love. Humanity takes on new forms and moves to new planets. In the moments when humanity is capable of philosophical and spiritual reflection, it is plagued by recurring issues--in particular, by the tension between two of its greatest spiritual attainments: (1) a deep love for and identification with all life and the passionate desire for all life to continue and to be free of suffering, and (2) a dispassionate aesthetic appreciation of fate, a mystical awe at the beauty of the drama of the cosmos, including individual and racial suffering and extinction.

The story is engaging, and I was awed by how clearly articulated and how deeply explored is this basic paradox of spirituality. Like two of my favorite authors, Nancy Mairs and Annie Dillard, Stapledon takes a clear and unflinching look at the pain and angst of life in this universe and manages to find hope and beauty. Just two small gripes: it gets a little too pedantic at the very end, and the editor should have deleted about 90% of the occurrences of the word "extravagant." If you like science fiction with deep ideas, or if you like spiritual or philosophical reflection and think you can at least tolerate the sci fi genre, I highly recommend this book.

The reason that humans are capable of the things we are is because we can talk.

Opposable thumbs might be rather handy no?

reply to post by kenny71


Kenny, I don't think any non-linguistic species can hope to develope the control over reality which we so freely exert. I would say if humans disappeared no species that is alive today would be running the show. The whole place would just be like national parks are now.

Chimps are decent bet if we're looking for what will evolve into a linguistic species. The corvids are pretty smart too.

I'm gonna hedge my bets and say the next ring leader will be either the descendants of the corvids or the higher primates. Something that can talk and is has sufficient dexterity and strength to manipulate objects.

reply to post by wayaboveitall


The ability to manipulate objets is certainly indespensable when it comes to making things. Opposable thumbs are key to our abilities, but I think that octipus tenticles or even bird beaks could probaby be put to fairly effective use. I think almost any apendage could be modified over a long enough period of time to do the same sort of stuff we do with hands.

I vote for ants.

Very intelligent little guys, and they are already developing agriculture and slavery.

Not to mention they are pretty good little architects, and a cooperative social species. I think all the necessary elements are there.

My vote would go to rats. *shudder*

They adapt. They are intelligent; moreover they are survivors.

reply to post by OnceReturned


I also think we overrate technology. After all, we HAD to develop it, in order to survive in many different climates and circumstances. We are kind of thin skinned and delicate creatures.

Some species have managed to spread around the globe without the need for our elaborate measures. What do they need central heating and air for if they have already found ways to adjust to the climate? Or if they tunnel into the ground and use the warmth provided by that?

We seem to think that changing the environment is a good thing, something to be desired. But it isnt really. And perhaps we are only the dominant species in our own minds. After all, we certainly arent the most populous, or even the longest lived, nor are we likely to be around longer than many of the insects.

Perhaps they already are the dominant complex life form on Earth and we are just to arrogant and self absorbed to recognize it.

Although a world ruled by Corvids or Avians would seem quite amusing I would lean towards Primates. I would imagine an animal that can display emotion is key. Before I upset anyone I have seen African Greys and other birds display emotion as well.

Ants would be a neat idea as well.

I think the cephalopod capacity for changing the colour, luminosity and texture of their skin at will could potentially be adapted for complicated language.
Humans can communicate perfectly adequately with hand signs, imagine if we could combine those hand configurations with different colours, textures and flashes of light on our skin.

www.thecephalopodpage.org...
news.nationalgeographic.com...
www.smithsonianmag.com...

kenny71 the horse I mentioned is the Przewalski's horse

[edit on 16-3-2010 by Arkady]

[edit on 16-3-2010 by Arkady]