other intelligent species

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Let's assume, as a result of evolution process, apes or dogs become as intelligent, as they start to behave as humans.
This assumption is not very strange, I guess it will occur in the future.
Many questions arisen in my mind, but maybe for the beginning:

1. When we (humans) may distinct this great moment?
2. Are humans eligible to influence this new civilization?
3. Am I wrong, humankind will be granted by brand new dimension of relationships?

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@sneer,

sneer;139652 wrote:

Let's assume, as a result of evolution process, apes or dogs become as intelligent, as they start to behave as humans.

You'll need to relevantly define your concepts. Does intelligence mean the tendency to behave like individuals or groups of homo sapiens? Do you think evolution is the tendency of organisms to exhibit traits of homo sapiens? etc.

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@ughaibu,

ughaibu;139657 wrote:

You'll need to relevantly define your concepts. Does intelligence mean the tendency to behave like individuals or groups of homo sapiens? Do you think evolution is the tendency of organisms to exhibit traits of homo sapiens? etc.

really don't know. I guess, today's dogs are much more developed than ancient.

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@sneer,

I don't think apes and dogs will become that intelligent. Dogs have a great niche carved out already that doesn't require intelligence. For apes I imagine it would take millions of years. They are endangered in many places already, and humanity will continue to grow.

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@Jebediah,

Jebediah;139694 wrote:

I don't think apes and dogs will become that intelligent. Dogs have a great niche carved out already that doesn't require intelligence. For apes I imagine it would take millions of years. They are endangered in many places already, and humanity will continue to grow.

"ha, ha, ha" said a King of Animals, a giant dinosaur, about 60 millions years ago.

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@sneer,

sneer;139701 wrote:

"ha, ha, ha" said a King of Animals, a giant dinosaur, about 60 millions years ago.

But if humans are wiped out, then what of your three questions? They all deal with humanity being present during the new species becoming super intelligent.

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@sneer,

Whilst dogs are certainly intelligent they lack hands, therefore the tool-making we so associate with humanlike intelligence is pretty much denied to them. I'd also say their capacity for language is limited, whilst dogs are known to employ different growls, barks and whines to mean different things, this seems to be a small and instinctive vocabulary, not an adaptive one.

There's no real reason to expect that an ape couldn't acheive humanlike sapience, after all a certain species of ape already has done and bonobos are quite similar in terms of what they can grasp the basics of - adaptive learning and so on.

But the issue I would take with the OP is that it "will happen in the future". i don't think humanlike potentials of intellect are really that predictable, and don't seem really to be an end of evolutionary processes any more than any other adaptation to a niche. Many species have been about a lot longer than humans, and have done pretty well without intelligence that competes with that we can develop.

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@Jebediah,

Jebediah;139703 wrote:

But if humans are wiped out, then what of your three questions? They all deal with humanity being present during the new species becoming super intelligent.

I didn't put such assumption. My concern was, humankind is not prepared to deal with other intelligent species, especially if its intelligence level is far below us.
There were several very bad stories, when some humans put themselves in superiority relation to other humans (Jews, Indians, Black, Aborigens), but what will happen if we had another species in such relation?

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@sneer,

sneer;139652 wrote:

Let's assume, as a result of evolution process, apes or dogs become as intelligent, as they start to behave as humans.
This assumption is not very strange, I guess it will occur in the future.
Many questions arisen in my mind, but maybe for the beginning:

1. When we (humans) may distinct this great moment?
2. Are humans eligible to influence this new civilization?
3. Am I wrong, humankind will be granted by brand new dimension of relationships?

Maybe in a few million years, I don't see it coming any time soon.

1 Reply

@HexHammer,

HexHammer;139921 wrote:

Maybe in a few million years, I don't see it coming any time soon.

even if they come from a space?

2 Replies

@sneer,

sneer;139924 wrote:

even if they come from a space?

Even if they come out of my matchstick drawing?

1 Reply

@HexHammer,

HexHammer;139931 wrote:

Even if they come out of my matchstick drawing?

geeez...second page and focus on assumption Sad

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@sneer,

sneer;139924 wrote:

even if they come from a space?

Why would we automatically consider ourselves superior to a species that has mastered space travel? Isn't the current thinking more enlightened then past thinking?

Arguing for a pessimistic view of humanity needs as much reasoning to support it as arguing for an optimistic one.

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@Jebediah,

Jebediah;139939 wrote:

Why would we automatically consider ourselves superior to a species that has mastered space travel?

well, they may come with a comet, with "our" spaceship. We may discover other civilization while exploring other planets. Doesn't matter. It's not so impossible, as you said.

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@sneer,

Only our large brains and hands with an apposing thumb separates us from the higher life forms such as apes and wales.

Put the most powerful human naked in a cage with a grizzly bear and you will see is as a funny puny little naked ape unable to defend itself

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@Alan McDougall,

Alan McDougall;140202 wrote:

Only our large brains and hands with an apposing thumb separates us from the higher life forms such as apes and wales.

It would be too easy.
Nor whales, neither apes make civilization and this is basic distinction to me.

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@sneer,

What about our concept of right and wrong.
Even if it only results from our societal influences the dog might have a hard time developing that without us around
The dog appears too feel guilty when you scold him, but does he really care about the act? Or does he just not like being scolded?
For that matter, do humans really care about the act,or are we just afraid of being ostracised?

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@sneer,

sneer;139652 wrote:

Let's assume, as a result of evolution process, apes or dogs become as intelligent, as they start to behave as humans.
This assumption is not very strange, I guess it will occur in the future.
Many questions arisen in my mind, but maybe for the beginning:

1. When we (humans) may distinct this great moment?
2. Are humans eligible to influence this new civilization?
3. Am I wrong, humankind will be granted by brand new dimension of relationships?

As humans, I sincerely doubt that we'd ever acknowledge either this "great moment" or this "new civilization."

For thousands of years we've been at the top of the food chain, and we're not looking to relinquish this title. If any other species even came close to threatening this position, I guarantee you that we'd squash them like bugs.

And even if hypothetically another species did manage to reach our level, we still wouldn't accept them as equals, but would regard them only as an unwanted presence.

1 Reply

@TheSubrbnCowboy,

TheSubrbnCowboy;140426 wrote:

As humans, I sincerely doubt that we'd ever acknowledge either this "great moment" or this "new civilization."

For thousands of years we've been at the top of the food chain, and we're not looking to relinquish this title. If any other species even came close to threatening this position, I guarantee you that we'd squash them like bugs.

And even if hypothetically another species did manage to reach our level, we still wouldn't accept them as equals, but would regard them only as an unwanted presence.

There might be other highly evolved life forms in the universe that they would think of us a bugs and stamp on us like we do on a cockroach

1 Reply

@Alan McDougall,

Only those life forms haven't established worldwide governmental organizations, and if we ever were presented with a species that posed a threat to our dominance, we'd be much more likely to stamp it out than to accept it.

If you doubt me on this, then ask yourself what you'd do if you were to wake up one night and find a wild animal in your home. You wouldn't try to accept it or reason with it, you'd try to get it out of your home by any means possible, and as an intelligent human, you'd succeed.

We've evolved beyond that point that other species can stand up to us. We are in control.

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other intelligent species

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