Why are animals stupid?? (interesting question)

my apologies for some unnecessary harsh language.


i was more joking about human supremacy than anything else and

meant for no personal attacks on anyone.



i like this thread and hope it has a long life!

It depends on what defines intelligence.

If intelligence is defined by the ability to survive as a species, then there is no doubt about it; the animals are more intelligent. After all, they've managed to limit their thinking processes (evolve?) so as to make it an impossibility for them to ever be able to put themselves, as a species, at risk of extinction.

Humans on the other hand? Well let's just say it'd take us a LONG time before we'd run out of BRILLIANT ideas on how easily we're able to rid this world -- once and for all -- of our almighty brains.

It's almost inevitable; our "intelligence" will bring the end of us.

So like I said, depends on how you define "intelligence"... and even then -- given our distorted form of intelligence -- I'm sure we'd make it a very "special" definition, so we can feel awfully intelligent!

[edit on 15/8/10 by Navieko]

reply to post by Point of No Return

I don't know what there is to discuss. Are you saying our pets have a biiger brain capacity than we have?

I know pets are smart, I know dogs that seem almost as smart as we are, but they don't quite have the capacity that we have.

What do you mean by Capacity?

Look at an ant, and how small it is, and yet it communicates, and has an amazing co-ordination + organizational skills.

IS it really about capacity? Or is it about belief?

Originally posted by oozyism
Why are animals stupid??

Because they are acting too much like humans?

because stupid is entertaining?



but humans aren't that stupid of an animal, are they?





[edit on 15-8-2010 by Esoteric Teacher]

Birds are very intelligent. Some parrot species are so smart they can literally become insane. (If they are not given what they need which is a good deal of time and love). They are the only other animal besides us that walks on two legs, and the only other besides us that has an affinity for music! Others use sound for communication and like whale songs, but birds are truly musical.

Animals aren't supid at all - my Basset Hound "Moe" is smarter than me. He wants to join ATS but I want to get him his own laptop first. And he is so much more peaceful and loving than most people I know.

Originally posted by sassyncute
This has literally got to be the dumbest post on ATS.

How is a post like this even getting on here?

Animals are not stupid. And as for their beliefs well we don't actually know if they have beliefs?

Bad post OP

Answer this then: If we inherit a belief system which dictates us to become animals, what would the out come be?

When we become animals, and forget about thinking, because it was deeply rooted within our culture, how could we advance?

The only way we can advance after that is if someone comes and changes our belief. We are changing the belief of animals, now animals are doing things which they wouldn't have been able to do with their own beliefs they inherited.

Think about my cat, when it is hungry it comes next to me and meows and then goes towards his plate, then does it again, then goes towards his plate again until I fill it up.

I think you have no imagination

reply to post by Esoteric Teacher



i never seen that penguin pic!


lmao! twisted mind that thought that one up!

thanks!

we have nothing without our intelligence. (reference to the second photo.)

poorly equipped to survive. hairless, clawless, weak, fangless, cluless.

the only creatures we can beat without smarts are clams and plants and i bet alot died by eating the wrong ones too. 9 chinese guys died eating the wrong plants for lunch, recently here. talk about bummer.

don't get me wrong, HSS can do alot of good in this world, i'm glad to be one but people need to get some more empathy for the world we share.

Animals are very smart, and a lot of insects are pretty smart too. They are smart enough to be able to survive. That's all what is truly needed in an animal. Understanding a bit of our english and/or body language for a ape, dog, cat, is very good as it is.

I am partially agree with you, because animals brain is not fully developed as human.
If so that you are giving your thoughts about animals, but animals are very important part of our life.

Animals are very intelligent IMO

My dog for example baffled me for weeks when she was escaping from the backyard. I couldnt figure out how she was doing it until I actually caught her in the act one day, lol

They do lack reasoning, and thrive on instinct, but I dont think their intelligence is "stupid".

Some humans ont he other hand.....well you get the drift

Animals are no more or less intelligent than us. They just operate on a different wavelength than us in this reality. When we humans don't understand something we call it 'stupid'. Really it is us being stupid and not understanding.

Animals act on instinct. If you were to take a domestic dog or cat and siddenly throw it into the wild it would find food and water and probably survive fine. If you did the same with a highly domesticated human they would probably be dead within weeks.

Different animal species have varying levels of instinct and free will. The ones with more free will are the ones we connect with most and think of as 'intelligent' only because we think of ourselves as intelligent. The ones with more instinct we think of as stupid.

Humans have forfeited their instinct (or their connection to the grid) for free will. That doesn't make us more intelligent. Just oprating on a different wavelength.

[edit on 16-8-2010 by Nammu]

Just came across this video and thought of this thread while watching it.



In my opinion it takes a special type of intelligence for a relationship like that to exist... something I think we're lacking quite a lot in today's world, unfortunately.

reply to post by Navieko


Exactly, and yet people in this thread come a long and pretend that brain capacity = intelligence, that is not true at all. A dog and an Elephant, it is really touching.

Thanks for the video.

reply to post by Navieko


Thank you so much for posting that video.
I loved it.

To say that brain capacity equals intelligence would be the same as saying, humans are less intelligent then a number of animals. Neanderthal would even be smarter then us.

The best proof for intelligence has nothing to do with brain capacity is the observed intelligence in birds. There are a few species so bright that they would out smart almost all of the animal world. With a brain the size of a walnut, go figure.

reply to post by oozyism


I believe that people are programmed to believe that animals are stupid in the first place, when in fact they are sometimes smarter than us. People think that just because animals don't drive a Ferrari, don't build hotels and don't work in space, they have to automatically be dumb. Yes, we are unique and we can do things which any other species on Earth can't. But does that mean we are the best and better than all the rest? Far from it. If I ignore for a second extraterrestrials who live and work on this planet and just compare us to let's say monkeys (or any larger developed animal for that matter), we are sometimes worse than the animals we tend to laugh at.

We destroy the planet every day. We kill hundreds of millions of animals each year. We kill ourselves thinking it is normal. We are spiritually primitive. We need sex. We need the system and the system needs us. Yet we have TV, the internet, mobile phones, the LHC, the ISS and we tend to think we are the masters of the universe when we are not. Some ET species thinks we are like bugs, some want to eat us and some want to give us a chance. We should give a chance to other species on our planet as well.

Animals don't need to produce videogames or smoke weed, drink alcohol, etc. Why? Maybe because they don't know how to or maybe because they don't need to. I think though that if they had the chance, they would proove to be as good at things as we are, if not better. Animals are very intelligent beings. Surely not entirely all of them, but most of them are and have developed pretty interesting capabilities and skills. Animals are more organised, can work in groups, are more spiritually connected with the planet, can learn from us from their perspective hard tasks, they can survive alone in the open, etc. Just because they look and live differently doesn't mean they are not smart and worth studying.

Recently I saw two documentaries on Nat Geo Wild about exotic wild life in the forests of Japan. Part of it was about Macaque and how they live throughout the year. It was pretty stunning actually. They are like people, only trapped in different bodies. Take a look also at Odaigahara or animals in Africa and South America or Antarctica. Aren't elephants, giraffes, chameleons, monkeys, sharks, zebras, bears, polarbears, penguins, crocs, snakes, turtles and many other species fascinating? And what about our dogs and cats at home?

Animals are underestimated by the general populace. They aren't colorful toys for the circus. They are companions which we need to understand. No wonder they don't want to talk to us sometimes when they think we are stupid when we behave that way eventhough we don't have to. So let's be friends with animals, help them out and enjoy them before we kill them all off.

[edit on 17/8/10 by Cybernet]

We hosted a session at this hotel for police dogs, they did their final testing here to become officers of the law. They were treated with the utmost respect during their trials, as a fellow officer. Most of the dogs being certified were not drug sniffing dogs, rather cadavar dogs. They don't only hunt for dead bodies though, they can find living people too, buried under rubble, people trapped in caves, ect. The dogs encompass so many breeds I can't list them all. These were some of the smartest animals I have ever had the chance to meet and be around. They save lives, and put to rest fears when a loved one is missing and they find them, dead or alive. These are not things a human can do. It takes a human smart enough to train the dog what to look for, but the dog is smart enough to learn it.

Animal intelligence is different form human intelligence; one is not smarter or more intelligent than the other, the intelligence just evolved along different paths for different species on the planet.

If you take two dogs from two different parts of the world, say China and the US, they would be able to communicate to each other, similarly if you take a person from each of these places, they might not be able to understand each others language, unless one of them is bilingual, but they would still be able to find a way to communicate, it would just take a bit longer in the humans case, not because the dogs are smarter, but because they did not evolve a complex language system, that changes depending upon location, there is no need in the animal kingdom, where there was a need in the Human kingdom.

There was need for us to use tools, where other animals did not have that need. Humans are born into this world and it takes years before they can even defend themselves, tools were needed to help in this defense, other animals are able to defend themselves within months, and are built in with natural defense systems, no need for outward tools.

The list of differences goes on which demonstrate that it is a different intelligence between the species and not a level of, so to speak.