mikeMarek

What if the intelligence of an animal (even humans) are based on the number of 'choices' that it is able to process, given on a certain standard condition? Now to explain

Take an animal that is really quite un-itelligent, such as a squirrel. It doesn't make many 'choices' in its life. It runs around collecting nuts. It has no choice in what it does with those nuts. It collects them, and stores them. There is no though process there. Therefore, the squirrel has very little intelligence because it doesn't choose what to d with that nut, it acts on primal instinct.

Now take a look at humans. If a human gets a nut, it has the choice to eat it, throw it out, not eat it, give it to someone, etc. Humans have a choice in what they do. Humans are considered the smartest animals because they have complete control over everything they do. They 'choose' what they do, not some little voice in the back of their head that tells them what to do or an instinct on what they do.

Now, when I said "based on a certain standard condition?" That means the most common or most popular condition in which an animal does something. Again, relating to the squirrel. Say the squirrel gets attacked my a cat. The squirrel will most likely run from that cat because it is written in its instinct that it should run away from the cat. Cat = bad. That would be the most common choice that the squirrel would pick.
Now, say the cat was injured, the squirrel may choose to fight back, but since that is more unlikely that any other choice, it is not a standard condition.

And when I say "standard", I mean between different species that are in the same 'condition.' All of the animals would pick the same outcome when in the same condition, such as equal fitness, same location, same state of mind, etc.

Anyways, just a theory that I came up with along with my cousin while taking a few bong hits. Enjoy and tell me what you think!

Cheers,
-Mike

nornerator

It is interesting, but it seems to assume that intelligence is based off of "free will" which doesn't exist in the sense that you are describing it. Our mind is a subjective experience that is produced by the brain. When the brain is altered our state of mind is altered. When parts of the brain are removed, parts of the mind disappear. All of our thoughts, decisions, actions, and states of mind are all produced by non-random chemical and physical reactions in the brain and body.

The ability to "choose" is an illusion. Certainly the brain makes a decision, but it is determined by the chemical and physical makeup of the brain at a certain point in time. It is not as if you could have actually made a different decision than the decision that was made.

This is not to say that consciousness and awareness cannot affect our decisions, but that our consciousness and awareness are also a result of the chemical and physical composition of the brain. Being conscious and aware is cool, it acts as a layer on top of the rest of the ordinary mind that help bring large amounts of data together and allows us to look at the big picture. Consciousness helps process information so that good decisions are made, however this does not detract from decisions being completely deterministic from the chemical and physical composition of the brain.

Sorry that was somewhat of a tangent however it helps to explain my position below.

You made the argument that a squirrel does not have as many choices with a nut as a human does, but this is assuming the squirrel has no choices about the nut.

Say the squirrel happens upon a rotten nut, does it choose to ignore it, or is it simply instinct that the squirrel ignores it? If so, how can you tell.

Same thing for a person, does the person really choose to eat the nut, or is eating simply an instinct?

Do you choose to not eat your own arm? Or is it instinct that keeps you from eating your own arm?

My point is, human behavior is incredibly similar among individuals. We all eat, we all sleep, we live in groups, we have long term partners, etc etc. An alien civilization looking at us might conclude that we humans do not have any choice in what we do and that what we do is driven by instinct.

I happen to think humans and animals are much more similar than people like to believe.

I think consciousness is a continuum that even atoms have some form of consciousness. I think that most animals although they lack certain kinds of intelligence (the ability to manipulate numbers and concepts) that we share a similar state of being. We share awareness with them....

2slo2run

What I see: Humans are the most intelligent because we are arrogant enough to ignore primal insticts and question everything...

mikeMarek

Exactly! It makes sense when I'm high

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dirtbomb

I'm not sure that humans are as smart as they think they are.

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macphearsome

I think that nornerator basically hit the nail on the head.

The squirrel's decision may seem stupifyingly simple to us, but the decisions that we make in a day are generally speaking based off the same "victory conditions" - survival, reproduction.

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Hashishi

According to the latest in neurology we are not consciously responsible for our choices. Consciousness just exists to document and memorise the choices our subconscious makes. I haven't got a source, but I read recently that neurologists conducted a study in which they hooked people up to devices measuring brainwave activity and told them to press a button without any constraint of time or reason. They discovered that the subjects had decided to press the button long after they went to press the button. That's to say there was a half-second delay (a pretty vast one as far as neurology is concerned) between the subject pressing the button and the decision being consciously registered.

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Hashishi

Whoops.