Thanks for widening my view
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It was written over 40 years ago so some of the factual elements are a bit dated but The Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan (text downloadable at the link) frames this question very well and discusses the hypotheses that seek to answer it.
There is no unitary definition of intelligence. Itâs existence has been assumed. The assumption that drove the question historically was that there is something unique about humans that distinguishes us from other lifeforms and that something includes âintelligenceâ. Like many terms whose etymologies predate modern biology, it is largely pointless to attempt to shoehorn it into a technical definition rooted in science. There are things that make humans unique and some of those things combine in ways that manifest as what we call intelligence but the context in which âintelligenceâ has led to a divergence (if thatâs the correct term) between humans and other living things is cultural, not biological. Culture is rooted in the ability to use language. No other species uses language the same way Homo sapiens uses language, especially as a medium for storing and transmitting information in written form. Other organisms may possess an innate ability to use language in similar ways but, if so, they donât do it.
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We have nearly succeeded in destroying this planet and making it uninhabitable. Now the exceedingly wealthy head for Mars, to rinse and repeat. Vandalism rather than intelligence in my eyes,
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Drifting off topic, but Mars is already an uninhabitable planet. I doubt Jeff Bezos could grow a potato for himself, but if he wants to foot the bill to take the rest of us to Mars so we can figure out how to turn it into something livable, Iâm all for that. If we can revive a dead planet, thereâs no reason we couldnât fix the Earth, too.
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I donât think that is exclusively human, unless you specify written records. They are not terribly long lasting compared to a book or digital data, but many animals leave scent marks as a record of their passage and a marker of their territory. Itâs not exactly an oral history, but animals can certainly communicate the location of food, water, etc. to each other as well via vocalizations, pheromone signalling, body language, etc. as well.
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Itâs still nothing like written language, people have poor taste of smell but itâs there and we also get quite a lot of info unconsciously about other humans.
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By record keeping I was thinking about organized data and retained history rather than communication.
Still, Your reply reminds me of a show I saw about bees that explained the bee waggle dance and the relationship of the movements to the orientation of the sun. I donât know that the communication goes into any kind of retained history though. Yet, who knows?
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In the case of elephants they change the migration routes in response to different environmental conditions and their own knowledge of the terrain. This indicates that there is a deliberate decision making process involved, which in turn indicates at least some degree of intelligence and choice coming into play.
Migration routes being memory dependent is not limited to animals like elephants, the same has been observed in cod, and overfishing of cod, especially targeting large, old individuals, has led to the loss of some of the migration routes cod used to use.
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Itâs worth noting that during that time there were a lot of other major advances and inventions that took place: control of fire, movement into novel environments, clothing, boats, language, projectile weapons (thrown spears), constructed shelters, body ornamentation (ochre collection), etc.
We also donât know what other tools were in widespread use as wood and bone tools donât tend to survive well in the archaeological record.
We also donât know exactly what the acheulean hand axes were used for other than as a cutting/chopping tool. The remarkable uniformity across time and space, the level of unnecessary symmetry for a basic tool, as well as some that were unusably large, made in stylized shapes, or made specifically to incorporate artistic elements, such as this one made to highlight a fossil (far from the only occurrence of this sort of artistic inclusion and framing) has led some researchers to suggest that they had a significance beyond simple tools, possibly tied to ritual (the catch-all for unclearly understood behaviors) or as part of mate selection (the second catch-all category).
Homo erectus made a lot of incredible advances and figured a lot of things out that we still rely on to this day. Sure, one aspect of their technological toolkit may have remained remarkably consistent for a difficult to fathom length of time, but there may have been other reasons for that, and during that time they came up with a number of remarkable and fundamental innovations, and had to invent language as they did so, arguably the most complex, useful, and difficult tool, and one that greatly facilitated all subsequent innovations.
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I would say that intelligence is the ability to understand and learn. We as a species have always thought we were much more intelligent than all the other species on Earth. As you learn more about nature we keep getting surprised at how intelligent other creatures are.
Humans dominate the world simply because we are the first species with the ability to accumulate knowledge generation after generation. We have unnaturally long lives to accumulate knowledge in. Also we have vocal tracks with enough sophistication to generate a wide variety of sounds and thus be able to convey complex messages. This vocal track leads to language which helps us to think. A big brain is helpful, but not enough.
Our accumulated knowledge aids our ability to be intelligent but it is not a requirement for intelligence.
I bet that if could alter the vocal tracks of other species of ape to be like ours they would be able to learn nearly or or as fast as any human.
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Yes, it was me that brought up consciousness. Itâs relationship to intelligence is tenuous, yet humans tend to equate the two. I do not know if other life forms are conscious or not, but intelligence is demonstrated (at least) by many vertebrates.
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I really donât know why everyone responding about elephants explaining right what I wrote.
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Likely because the way you wrote it made it seem like you were saying that there was nothing of intelligence, decision making, planning, etc involved and that it was just an aspect of memory.
Memory may be a part of intelligence, but it is something different too, non-living things have âmemoryâ, so this portion,
theyâre moving based on common routes or memory in some species like elephants
reads a bit like saying that intelligence is not a factor.
We may well have misunderstood the intent though.
The larger statement,
insticts based on day length and earth magnetic field, nothing in migration of hooved animals is a product of intelligence
is a very much contested point, and one that I personally do not fully agree with. Migratory plasticity has been well documented in a wide range of species, mammalian herbivore, avian, fish, and other. There is an ongoing debate and discussion concerning what levels of migratory plasticity exist and what species are more or less flexible. At present it appears that plasticity and rigidity in migration patterns are both widespread across the animal kingdom, and that they are not limited to one class or another of organisms, but need to be looked at on an individual basis.
Sawyer, et al 2018 Migratory plasticity is not ubiquitous among large herbivores goes into this topic in some depth, and provides examples and references both for and against migratory plasticity in a range or organisms. Theyâre focusing primarily on one species, but there are a goodly number of references included.
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I said theyâre more of an exception in amount of personal knowledge involved, memory itself is not intelligence imo, you can remember routes without analysing that. Again we need to define what intelligence is, as from some answers it seems any brain activity equals intellect.
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but, you do realise, that he WONâT take the rest of us, only the ones who can pay for their ticket.
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Our local wild bee researchers know that bees study the flowers about to bloom - and produce the right number of larvae to use that available resource.
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I would bet none of his rich buddies know how to grow a potato either. You canât colonize a planet with just plutocrats or else theyâll just find their money canât buy what they need anymore. I donât think we need to worry about the rich people ditching everyone else for another planet.
I would suggest that intelligence in any animal is the ability to mentally visualize and decide among various options to address a problem, obstacle, opportunity, or some novel situation in its environment and be able to also visualize the desired outcome. Basically itâs the ability to plan and implement actions both for the short-term and long-term. If a response is purely instinctive itâs not intelligent but that doesnât mean itâs less effective or remarkable.
Added: using memory and experience to inform decision-making is also a component. Also observing how fellow members of your species (and maybe other species) address situations and incorporating that information into decision-making.
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Intelligence is a word that people have come up with to describe their own behavior. It has its roots deep in Western religion and philosophy. The opposite is the instinct on which other animals are considered to live. Instinct is less than intelligence, so manâs status as lord of the biosphere is self-evident. This is the reality that most people are desperate to believe in.
In fact, similar electromolecular processes guide the decision-making of humans, elephants, impalas, rats and crows. Many sophisticated decisions made by humans have come about âinstinctivelyâ even before the human individual himself has become aware of them.
All the currently alive individuals of different species of organisms are connected, through complex bonds, to the beginning of life 3-4 billion years in the past. All of them and their ancestors have survived these enormous periods. All of them are equally valuable. Their lives are possible because they have made the right decisions in their lifetime.
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slave labour and Soylent Green resource?