Plan B Forum

Discuss

When I first started studying zoology as a child, and later majoring in it at university for 3 years, I always felt that the 'rules' set forth for animal behavior other than humans seemed off and counterintuitive.

The prevailing thinking was that we must not anthropomorphize other animals - and of course, we had the incredible arrogance to believe ourselves unique in the capacity to problem solve, reason, experience emotions, no doubt stemming from our silly human myths about how we were designed by a creator in his image.

Of course in the space of my lifetime we have learned we were utterly wrong in so many ways about animal behavior and the capacities of animals to experience this world in similar ways as we do.

I have no doubt that if humans survive long enough, the time will come when we are brought to our knees by our prior ignorance about animals and the incredibly intelligent ones we have slaughtered indiscriminately for millennia.

Can't help thinking of:

BSG, your observations above about animal behavior now are expanding to include plant behavior. Where will it stop? Gia? Sheri S. Tepper eloquently invited us to consider an entire planet as a sentient being.

snailgate.

Why should it stop? Science makes no judgments, it simply follows the evidence.

Trees in a forest are not individuals, they are a family of linked root systems which transmit information to one another and work together for the health of one another. Is this not a form of intelligence? Problem solving? Shared interest? Self awareness and awareness of others? https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science- ... 20networks.

Just because silly old humans don’t yet understand a society and culture and language doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Our hubris is boundless in thinking otherwise.

Of course Gaia is a living creature. Certainly there is a sentience there.

Someday we will hang our heads in shame over our ignorance - if she lets us persist long enough.

I think reading a book should be a qualification

MajGenl.Meade wrote: ↑

Thu May 16, 2024 1:52 am

I think reading a book should be a qualification

For sentience? That’s nonsensical.

Sentience is the ability to experience sensations. Ducking and covering proved one thing at least. I was still banging on about intelligence.

There is a Project CETI (a sort-of-pun on SETI where the C stands for cetaceans - whales, dolphins etc) which focuses on the sounds made by a group of sperm whales in the Caribbean, and how they communicate. Recently researchers have decided that the clicking sounds made by these whales are actually a complex language.

https://www.projectceti.org

Duck and cover was also proof that we were aware enough to understand what we brought about, but not enough to do anything about it other than pass it on to our kids as "business as usual". When I was in primary school, I was almost certain that we would have a major nuclear war before I was 21, and as I got older, all I wanted was to be near ground zero and not have to live in the resultant world. The fact that this has not come about astounds me, but we are doing the same thing with other things that seriously threaten our existence. I guess sentience is being aware of serious problems facing us, but not having enough wisdom to address them before they become worse.

[Psst BSG . . . I know literacy is not a differentiator between intelligence and non-intelligence]. Just in case you wanted to beat on me

Voting against or for Trump is kinda decisive though.

We always agree on the most important things, Gen.