+1 more
posted on Feb, 22 2012 @ 03:21 PM
The
original article on whether the dolphin has rights is pretty
impressive. It was followed up by a thread on ATS.
Just as impressive, is that the dolphin is
self aware , they can
communicate and have a reasonably large vocabulary.
Dolphins can use
tools and pass on their skills to their
pups. Dolphins have also shown emotions (by staring angrily at a cameraman).
The amount of intelligence that a dolphin has - opens all sorts of questions :
- Can a dolphin pass on knowledge verbally from one generation to the next? (Very likely)
- Can a dolphin tell a story? Can a dolphin visualise?
- If a dolphin is self aware then can it know right from wrong? Does it have a moral code?
- Does a dolphin have real choices and can it feel "bad" when it makes the wrong choice?
- Does a dolphin have faith? Does a dolphin have a soul?
If the answer to some of the questions are YES then the intelligence and conscious of the human is no longer unique. This has all sorts of moral
(Dolphin Rights) as well as religious issues (God gave free will to two creatures not one).
This also has impacts on the disclosure of ET - many of the problems of disclosure is that it makes the human no longer the unique animal to have such
a level of self awareness. However, the dolphin may have already crossed this ground.
I do think that these findings could be so fundamental in years to come