[Rockhounds] Civilization

[J Bryan Kramer]

Well sure dogs can learn some words in context, I think I've heard about
600 words or so on genius level dogs. But if your kid had a 600 word
vocabulary at age 10 or so, people would not call her a genius. Dogs also
lake situational memory, their sense of geometry is limited and they lack
multitudes of other essential human abilities.

Just pointing out that some critter has some limited mental ability does
not make them another Feynman. Fine a critter that can do tensor calculus,
build a steel girder bridge and compose Sonnets then let me know.

““There exists a law…inborn of our hearts…by natural intuition. … If our
lives are endangered by plots or violence or armed robbers or enemies, any
and every method of protecting ourselves is morally right.””
Cicero

J Bryan Krämer       North Florida, USA
photos at: http://pbase.com/photoburner


On Mon, Oct 3, 2022 at 11:50 AM <axel.emmermann at telenet.be> wrote:

> >>>We intelligent reptiles would need room in their skulls for the higher
> >>>brain lobes. Which so far as I know have not be found.
>
> Parrots have self-awareness and can build up quite a nice vocabulary. They
> also tend to use those words in the right context. They have tiny brains.
> Same with dogs... a German Shepard can learn more than a thousand words!
>
>
>
>
> Axel Emmermann
> Mineralogische Kring Antwerpen
> Mineralogical Society of Antwerp
> Werkgroep Fluorescerende mineralen
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> [ http://fluo.mineralogie.be/index.html |
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>
> ----- Oorspronkelijk bericht -----
> Van: "J Bryan Kramer" <codeburner at gmail.com>
> Aan: "Rockhounds at drizzle.com" <rockhounds at rockhounds.drizzle.com>
> Verzonden: Maandag 3 oktober 2022 17:41:08
> Onderwerp: Re: [Rockhounds] Civilization
>
> We intelligent reptiles would need room in their skulls for the higher
> brain lobes. Which so far as I know have not be found. And reptiles use the
> same biology as we do and so the idea that they have some mysterious way to
> get around this is unlikely to say the least. Remember what, I think
> Asimove said: "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof"
>
> Nope it was Sagan/Laplace:
>  “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” was a phrase made
> popular by Carl Sagan who reworded Laplace's principle, which says that
> “*the
> weight of evidence for an extraordinary claim must be proportioned to its
> strangeness*”
>
> ““There exists a law…inborn of our hearts…by natural intuition. … If our
> lives are endangered by plots or violence or armed robbers or enemies, any
> and every method of protecting ourselves is morally right.””
> Cicero
>
> J Bryan Krämer       North Florida, USA
> photos at: http://pbase.com/photoburner
>
>
> On Sun, Oct 2, 2022 at 10:46 PM Edward Tindell <ed-tindell at sprynet.com>
> wrote:
>
> > I ran across this and thought it might be interesting:
> >
> >
> >
> >                 "Years ago, anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked by a
> > student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a
> > culture. The student expected Mead to talk about fishhooks or clay pots
> or
> > grinding stones. But no. Mead said that the first sign of civilization in
> > an
> > ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then
> > healed. Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg,
> > you die. You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt
> > for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken
> leg
> > long enough for the bone to heal. A broken femur that has healed is
> > evidence
> > that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up
> the
> > wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through
> > recovery. Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization
> > starts, Mead said."
> >
> >
> >
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