2y ago

People should be taught in school that humans are not that smart, and that there are many comparable species in intelligence.

This opinion is based on reading people's thoughts on the internet and remembering what I was taught in my own time in school (where they essentially stumbled into teaching that humans were some kind of 'peak' of the evolutionary process)

I think people have waaaaayyyy too much faith in human intelligence and it's leading to the destruction of the world.

1- People keep thinking a scientist or a 'rich entrepreneur' is going to come up with some magic bullet to save the world, if we taught more about how other animals have tools, language, larger and older and more complex brain structures than us - People might realize it's similar to believing that dolphin will arise from the sea with some idea to stop climate change

2- we keep participating in these systems that have been created under the assumption that we are 'making progress'. I would argue that the minority of human invention represents real progress.

3- It leads to undervaluing the earth and taking it for granted. We worship ourselves as gods (literally). Almost everything you have wasn't invented by humans. It was the result of billions of years of selective design. Yet we teach as if things we harvest from nature were 'invented' by humans. In reality, we often have no way to produce or even of conceive of these things without a natural example.

Thanks for reading

45 comments

Humans have a large range when it comes to intelligence. Saying the average raven is comparable to human child is a fair statment but I don't see any other animal making monuments and going to space. I don't disagree with your points only the title. Issues come from people not educated properly. Which I could argue is systemic. Eventually we may be able to do the things we see in sci-fi but I doubt any other animal will anytime soon.
- > I don’t see any other animal making monuments and going to space
  But these are weird ( and biased) ways to measure intelligence. I could also say I don't see other species besides Cephalopods with a body-wide distributed brain network that can reform it's entire body to mimic in a few seconds, not to mention regularly escape from entirely alien containment measures.
  Even the mention of 'doing things we see in sci-fi' is weirdly human centric. Like dinosaurs lived on the earth for billions of years. How bout we accomplish that? There was a book that explored this idea that species are obsessed with themselves by Dan Quinn called 'Ishmael'. The whole book isn't really about that theme but it's got an allegory about jellyfish that explores it.
  edit: this is getting downvotes so let me ask another way:
  if 'accomplishing the things we see in sci fi' (like say, going to Mars) results in the extinction of the human species shortly after, do you think the remaining species on the planet will remember humans as 'smart' or 'obsessed with vehicles/exploration to the point of self-destruction'? If you could float above the remains of the civilization and make a judgement, would you think it was worth it?
  
  No animal shows anywhere near the range of neuroplasticity of humans. Humans can exist comfortably on almost all biospheres on earth and even space thanks to the technology we developed. Including the technology of language which features the word intelligence which we use for the way we grow and adapt. That's what we use our brains for and what we specialize in. We don't use our brains for sonar the way bats do, but that isn't intelligence.
  Does that make humans inherently superior or give us the right to render the planet uninhabitable? No, of course not, and animals are smarter than many people give them credit for. But calling animal intelligence comparable to that of humans simply isn't accurate.
  
  Lol I mean it is an unpopular opinion you would think people upvote the ones they dislike. No one is disagreeing that other animals are infact integeligent. What people disagree is the level of intelligence and how to measure it. The path to destruction due to blatant incompetence may just be a step to something better like we saw during the industrial revolution. Humans are not the only species to shape and use resources but it is more apparent (at least at the higher end intellect) that we can reflect on our actions and adjust. Humans are moving toward renewable sources and more eco friendly practices but it just does not feel fast enough. Humans as a species in its current state only existed for like 10K years and permanently effected the planet in that time. No other species has even done that. Good or bad we left our mark which proves a higher level of intelligence in the a short time we have been around. To answer your question, I do think it is worth it if we can get to the point of sustainability outside earth. Anything short of that would make it a complete waste of the potential we were given because any species that would have the ability to judge us for our failure would have achieved that goal. I know I do when I play Stellaris :). Plus failures are always good lessons on what not to do for them. I wish our predecessors where better but now we have to make the difference. Thanks grandpa. Let's blame on the lead.
- I agree.
Dolphins actually do have a top plan to stop climate change. Unfortunately, they don't have appendages capable of carrying out the take over of earth and destroying all humans.
- I like to think the first step would be to trying minor attacks to gauge the speed of humans fighting back. Such as sending a larger species to attack an important commerical tradeline. Sort of like if orcas started attacking ships in a place luke the gibralter strait. Starting with small sail boats eventually moving to sink larger vessels eventually crippling world trade by blockade.
- Why would they bother when they can just fly off into space back to their home planet? Of course they'll likely thank us for all the fish before they leave, but as humans don't speak dolphin it'll just look like a surprisingly sophisticated attempt to do a double backwards somersault through a hoop while whistling the Star Spangled Banner.
Individually, we are above average. But our advantage over other animals is language x technology. We are able to collect knowledge, preserve it and pass it down to our descendents. This body of knowledge spanning 10,000 years is the reason for our supremacy. We are a proto-hive mind.
- Other animals pass down cultural knowledge
  
  Not to the same degree, show me the animal with internet storage or books.
Disagree. We're by far the most intelligent species on the planet, but this is kind of like the AI problem - being intelligent doesn't make us benevolent or immune to screwed up incentives, and it doesn't automatically solve all coordination problems.
- I might agree we are 'intelligent without being wise' but then I would say that THAT should be taught.
  Currently we function as the equivalent of the neighborhood mad scientist. Obsessed with their own ideas but actively destroying everything and everyone including themselves. Smart not wise.
Agreed. Human intelligence is way over valued. i feel much of this thinking has roots in exceptionalism.
Good points. It is always good to keep and educate the ideas in context. Humans are the most intelligent species based on the ability to change the environment to suit us. Human intelligence have made us extremely adaptable to extreme environments as well.
That does not mean we're the best at surviving on an evolutionary time scale. Many species have us beat at that.
I think you are mixing up biologics with lack of cultuure. It would be far better to teach critical thinking (which they already do or at least did with me) so that kids learn to diferentiate dumb arguments with good ones. And they already do that in the liguistic class, (whatever is your countrys language) specially when they start teaching about news and the scientific method. But ill give you points for the fact that this is an unpopular opinion.
- I think you are mixing up biologics with lack of culture.
  Can you expand on what you mean by this? What does a biologic mean in this context and who lacks culture? Here's the definition of biologics I know of
  FWIW I don't enjoy being contrarian on this and I'm open to smoothing my opinion. Agreed that critical thinking is a crucial skill and more important than this
  
  I mean that you are atributing an issue about people being dumb and having dumb opinions to the fact that they are humans in a biological sence and that humans as whole is dumber and therefore other species are smart just because humans can have dumb opinions. In my book that makes no sense and makes me think that its mixing up two diferent fields. Thats all.
At this point, I would rather work with an orangutan than another human on a project because of how much I end up being the one doing all the work.
What animal specie is the peak if not humans? Not saying humans are anywhere near the far end of the intelligence spectrum but as far as we know we're still the most intelligent and special thing in the universe.
- Yeah I think I might also have a problem with the lack of understanding on evolution. You are not more evolved than other species.
  Evolution does not have a peak and it a constantly ongoing process. You can say that some things are more successful than others but you need a metric to measure by, there is no overall 'peak evolved' thing and in fact that statement makes no sense.
  Other animals on earth make up more biomass. Other animals on earth have lived longer than humans. Other animals on earth have more complex DNA. Other animals on earth have bigger bodies. Other animals on earth have bigger brains.
  We simply choose to look at tool use and ability to terraform because we are good at those things

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