My s.o. and I were discussing tests for animal intelligence being too anthropocentric, and we’ve both come to the conclusion (based on more recent work in the field that is getting better at trying to assess an animal’s intelligence on its own grounds, rather than our’s) that there’s going to be a major existential reckoning as this field progresses, because so many people do not realize the extent to which animals reason, think, and feel. If we ever reach the point of truly being able to understand what animals are thinking, we’re likely going to be horrified at what we’ve been doing to them (even more than many of us already are).
Yea, I always knew dogs were smart. But after having them myself, the depth of emotional understanding and support they really provide was mind blowing
I’ve always thought the idea that consciousness just suddenly starts with us makes no sense. I can’t believe it exists within a vacuum.
Take the eye as analogy. Eagles might have the best eyes in one sense, but dragonflies have a panoramic view and see more colors.
There’s also convergent evolution happening all over the place. If consciousness is useful for us, it must be for other animals too. Same for intelligence and so on.
My Labrador uses one toy to push another toy around the yard when he’s playing around. Technically he’s using tools. As far as i’m concerned, he’s pretty damn smart. We as humans just have the faculty to destroy the planet for our own personal gain. There are plenty of other creatures who have intelligent thoughts, we as humans can’t kill them fast enough I guess.
Or it could just have likely evolved multiple times in different primate branches.
As we have absolutely no way to document how early it first happened in our own branch. To assume it is linked is just more attempts to try and indicate the human branch is special. Use of tools has been seen in many many branches. We don’t assume that came from a joint ancestor that crawled out of the water. Or before.
This reminds me of Black & White, the god simulation game from, idk, the early 2000s. They had a list of common names and if your save profile matched one, a creepy voice would call you from time to time.
I know I heard my name called occasionally as a kid. Clear as day but directionless, seemingly from very close to me. I figured its just a bug in a developing mind. But could also be that my mom got damn angry if I didnt hear her calling so I was always listening for it, and like the article describe, I picked up noise and the brain filled in the expectation.
If this isn’t an SCP, it definitely should be. That being said I’ve never experienced this and I spent an awful lot of time wandering in the wildernesses in Monterey.
If you hear your name called while collecting samples in [redacted] Forest, ND, DO NOT respond. Calmly walk back to your vehicle and radio for support. An extraction team will be at your location shortly to remove you from the gaze of [redacted].
This is actually a really cool article. I did my MSC on a pile of dirt, so maybe it’s just me. Anyway, I like how he gets at how these walls act as a geomorphological feature on the landscape and from there, influence biota. The bit about mammals using the walls is cool, because in restoration and land reclamation we use artificial refuges (rock piles, bat boxes) to encourage animals back to the reclaimed landscape
Not just you, I thought it was engaging and interesting as well. The comment about artificial refuges really strikes a chord as well, and I would add man made brush piles to the list of reclamation structures for encouraging animal resurgence.
Also, I’m excited that I might be able to describe the various rock structures on our parcel with greater scientific rigor.
Yes, that’s right - brush piles and windrows of waste wood (from logging) are used to recreate habitat. Cowan et al 2011 (and 2012?; maybe they’re 2021/2022 respectively, I forget) has some great papers on how artificial refuges need to be constructed properly, otherwise they’re unused, or can serve as predator traps. I have the papers somewhere, though I had to request one from him.
If you’re interested, DM me and I’ll send them to you; it will require some digging, and I’m busy today, so I warn you turnaround might be slower than I’d like.
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