Would an intelligent species maim and murder its own?
Would an intelligent species spend a big part of it’s money on the military?
Would an intelligent species allow the suffering that goes on in the world? The madness that is Zimbabwe, Terrorism, hatred, or any of the woes that make this world an awful place at times.
Or are we just two steps up on a six step ladder to intelligence? Is is a matter of evolution? Will there be a change somewhere down the line for our descendants?
We’re agressive and territorial. Much as we may wish it were otherwise, that does not necessarily mean we lack in intelligence. I don’t think the measure of intelligence is how well we override our base instincts through pure reason.
Intelligence is something that originates at individual, not group level, so if something poses a threat, decisive action (including violent options) can quite easily be described as an intelligent response (example: a crocodile attempts to eat me; climbing a tree, killing the croc or rendering it immobile are just a few of the options from which I could intelligently choose).
In any case, intelligence is damn hard to pin down and define; it sounds to me like you’re talking about morailty.
What you are REALLY asking is not if we are intelligent, but rather if we are benevolent, and I believe you already answered your own question. As far as our evolving to become more intelligent, I doubt it. Evolution is a process of adaptation in order to survive as a species - it doesn’t mean we just keep getting more and more intelligent. Unless we decided to engage in some sort of eugenics program, we’re probably as intelligent as we’re going to get.
Actually, aside from inventing a lot of gadgets, I don’t see how we have changed much at all in thousands of years.
I wouldn’t be surprised if over 100 million lives have been saved from certain death due to the invention of antibiotics (they became mass available in the mid 1950s).
Agricultural technology has greatly cut down on hunger.
For every Mugabe who tortures his people, there is a non profit organization that tries to protect his people. Some succeed, some fail.
we are evolving mentally right now IMO. Becoming less repressive, less callous.
Perhaps it is our aggressive nature and our territorialism, mixxed in with our physical inferiorirty that makes us so intelligent. The conflict makes the man sort of thing.
(forgive the spelling or lack of logical sense, I am a bit of a lush today…read: drunk)
I doubt humans are evolving to be more intelligent in a purely genetic sense, but we are getting better at recognizing and eliminating things that could potentially make us dumber:
[ul][li]Lead and mercury pollutants: REDUCED through tighter industrial controls.[/li][li]Iodine-deficiency related retardation. REDUCED through the advent of iodized salt.[/li][li]Bacterial infections causing brain damage (i.e. meningitis) REDUCED through antibiotics and medical care generally.[/li][li]Brain damage through physical injury REDUCED through advent of plastic helmets and protective gear.[/li][/ul]
Whether or not one can argue that humans are unintelligent (and it seems a pretty asinine argument to make, especially while using a COMPUTER for God’s sake), we are, nevertheless, making our world overall much mor comfortable, safer and longer than our ancestors. Massacres and barbaric tortures are hardly new inventions. I understand the Sumerians were pretty good at them.
As for a six-step ladder to intelligence, what’s at the top? A bunch of harmless hippies sitting around going “Hey, Groovy” and too stoned or apathetic to take hostile action?
Intelligence is efficiency. Spin the bottle, pick a frame of reference and do time trials. That’s where you’ll find intelligence.
One may wonder whether some frame of references completely negate the intelligence observed in other standard reference frames; that is where you get truth and morality from. The base argument boils quite simply to ‘might makes right’ or ‘right makes might’. I am not aware that the two can share the same space.
You either gain against the existential value of your own existence, or you gain in accordance with that value.
It is to say; you either exist or you don’t; at that point, the rest becomes clear, as to how you should act. One could precribe your life after having seen this selection process made.
The hippie comment is a disgrace to the profundity of the intelligence issue. If you choose a counter-intelligent course to achieve action; there’s a manual for how to perfectly act, written by intelligent people; algorithmicly derived to assure your ignorant retirement of bliss. I’d say, that option sounds much closer to the hippie metaphor than the intelligent one.
sighs, but of course it probably looks like I spoke Justhink; this incomprehensible troll language…
It has always been my contention that we’re purely instinctive beings, with our instincts (‘reptilian brain’) tempered by our self-awareness (‘intelligence’) - and all the layers of brain in between.
Those things that are taboo in most human societies (e.g. rape, theft, incest, homicide) are observable in many near-human mammals. Our ‘intelligence’ is what makes these things taboo. Yet it cannot be denied that these behaviours, despite constant societal pressure against them, persist in all societies.
This tempering of instinct extends even to minor ‘reptilian’ behaviours: eating, for example. Everyone does it, and most do it in public; yet this fundamental instinctive behaviour is tempered in nearly every society by a great number of rules and taboos - that which is ‘polite’ and that which is ‘impolite’ to do while eating. Privacy during excretion is another. The enormity of rules and taboos governing sexual behaviour is yet another.
If one agrees with the works of Jared Diamond (and to a certain extent, Richard Dawkins), one can conclude that the intelligent part of humanity can sometimes be used to conquer our animal instincts; at other times it is used to provide justification of that which is purely instinctive; and in the case of psychopathic behaviour, it simply fails.
I’ve heard this question in one form or another asked all my life. Invariably the question can be restated as “Why isn’t everyone else as smart as I am?” or “Truly intelligent people would share my philosophy.”
So are we an intelligent species? Well, compared to what? You?
I’ve heard this question in one form or another asked all my life. Invariably the question can be restated as “Why isn’t everyone else as smart as I am?” or “Truly intelligent people would share my philosophy.”
So are we an intelligent species? Well, compared to what? You?
I’d say we are the most intelligent species currently. We’ve used our megar physical skills along with our advanced mental skills to surivive. Its my view that “intelligence” is more of very finely tuned instincts. We aren’t the most naturally able species but evolution found that the ones with better instincts survive to reproduce. So our instincts got better and better and here we are. We are still bound by our need to procreate more than anything. All these other things are simply so we can survive and procreate more comfortably.
But as far as the OP goes I don’t think you are talking about intelligence. As blowero said your talking more about benevolence. I don’t think any species is completely free from killing its own. If a muskrat stumbles among another muskrats territory or tries to steal another muskrats food its going to get attacked. Even killed. Its the same with humans except on a larger more advanced scale.
Yes, but it’s not an intelligent choice. You are replying to a reserve that has an existentially positive value in your memory.
If you deny the positive value of that memory; then your reply and your statement and your belief negate all the values that you hold in your memory. Anmy resource you receieve as a result of this expression is recieved by not doing any work; it is quite literally getting something for nothing. If that’s what you truly believe "
There is no existentially positive association with my reply to my own memory."
Then as far as society is concerned, you can take a hike.
I’d say that it’s our sense of morality that makes those things taboo. Our intelligence lets us figure out a way to do those things without getting caught.