We Are Qualitatively Different from Other Species
1–10 of 18 posts
Re: We Are Qualitatively Different from Other Species
#2“We are qualitatively different. All we need to do is open our eyes. You look out your window at that beautiful ~~city~~ anthill that happens to be out there that cannot be explained by this gradual increase of biological complexity.”
The only constant in our study of life is underestimating the complexity of other living things.
Re: We Are Qualitatively Different from Other Species
#3This is one of the weakest posts I've read, including YouTube comments :-).
There is no argument presented; no research cited; nothing new. Human exceptionalism has a long history (old testament and older), and has been treated in many different places.
Douglas Adam's famously wrote that humans and dolphins each think they are the most intelligent beings on earth -- humans think they are more intelligent because the invented the wheel, cities, wars, etc. whereas dolphins just play in the water all day. Dolphins think they are more intelligent for precisely the same reasons.
If anyone wants to discuss why precisely humans are more than monkeys-with-astonishingly-complicated sticks, be my guest, but please bring more than this simplistic post.
Re: We Are Qualitatively Different from Other Species
#4This doesn't do much of anything to support its thesis.
Re: We Are Qualitatively Different from Other Species
#5This is one of the weakest posts I've read, including YouTube comments :-). There is no argument presented; no research cited; nothing new. Human exceptionalism has a long history (old testament and older), and has been treated in many different places. Douglas Adam's famously wrote that humans and dolphins each think they are the most intelligent beings on earth -- humans think they are more intelligent because the…
i read all your words and stuff, but no, but, like, open your eyes, ok
Re: We Are Qualitatively Different from Other Species
#6Is the actual content behind a paywall/subscription, or those short seven paragraphs are all there is? In the latter case, this is just a statement without any proof or reasoning behind it.
Re: We Are Qualitatively Different from Other Species
#7This is one of the weakest posts I've read, including YouTube comments :-). There is no argument presented; no research cited; nothing new. Human exceptionalism has a long history (old testament and older), and has been treated in many different places. Douglas Adam's famously wrote that humans and dolphins each think they are the most intelligent beings on earth -- humans think they are more intelligent because the…
Agreed. It's an intriguing thesis, I think, but "open your eyes" is not a defense of it.
Re: We Are Qualitatively Different from Other Species
#8It's because humans have developed into something similar to the eusocial organism seen in other species like ants.
This makes the societal superorganism very effective at exploiting the planet's resources by conditioning human beings to serve it; that conditioning is also the root cause of all human suffering, which is an invitation to consider whether one wants to identify with society.
Re: We Are Qualitatively Different from Other Species
#9[deleted]
Re: We Are Qualitatively Different from Other Species
#10This is one of the weakest posts I've read, including YouTube comments :-). There is no argument presented; no research cited; nothing new. Human exceptionalism has a long history (old testament and older), and has been treated in many different places. Douglas Adam's famously wrote that humans and dolphins each think they are the most intelligent beings on earth -- humans think they are more intelligent because the…
We killed the other intelligent species, such as Neanderthal.
If many more species had evolved with human-level intelligence, we might have been in competition with them if they were geographically close to us. It might have been a winner take all.
If we look to the stars or AGI/BCI, it might still be.