The Theory of Nothing

Are animals smarter than we think they are?

Are animals smarter than we think they are?

This is another hotly debated idea. There have been many scientific studies done to determine the intelligence of animals. These studies evolved out of comparative psychology and the study of animal cognition. Who wouldn’t love to talk to their dog or cat? I don’t know about you, but I believe that cats and dogs know more than we think they do. They become aware of our schedules and our habits and adjust accordingly. They seem to anticipate our actions and communicate in the only way they can, using barking, meowing or body language.

The animals often studied for intelligence are primates, cetaceans (Dolphins), Elephants, dogs, cats and horses. The cetaceans as a species have brains as large or even larger than we humans. They are obviously intelligent, but it’s very difficult to determine their intelligence using human concepts and values. Scientists have had to come up with some very clever methods to determine their intelligence levels. The categories of intelligence often investigated include: perception, association, functional, relational, abstract, rule learning, memory, spatial cognition, and timing. But, these are human concepts. Animals don’t necessarily think like we do.

The most important signs of intelligence are language and consciousness. These are the signs that we look for in a human infant. We want to see signs that they can listen and talk to us and that they are aware of their own existence. The latter clue is when a baby can recognize its image in a mirror. Scientists call this the mirror test. The great apes, dolphins and rhesus monkeys can pass this test. However, talking to animals is fraught with great difficulty. It’s obvious that animals are able to communicate among their kind. They issue warnings of danger through vocalizations or body language. They employ touching and movements to communicate pecking order or domination. We just don’t understand their way of ‘talking.’

There have been many studies done to determine if dolphins could be made to talk. As you know, parrots and other exotic birds, can talk, but it’s a form of mimicry, not communication. Even dogs, cats and some other animals can do this. But, can a dolphin be trained to communicate with us? There has been quite a bit of progress made in this endeavor, and some studies have suggested a breakthrough, but it’s controversial. Many studies have shown that dolphins, and whales, communicate with one another using high frequency sounds and scientists have been successful in crudely interpreting these sounds.

Another intelligence test is insight. This is where the animal can reason out a situation and do something that is not part of its natural instinct. For example, a chimpanzee uses a stick to knock a fruit off of a tree branch or moves a box over so that it can climb up to the fruit.

Some animals can perform arithmetic. This is often used as a circus trick, but it turns out that horses, elephants and some apes can do this. Elephants, by the way, have brains that are almost as developed as ours.

What’s important about all of this is that the experience we obtain by trying to understand animal intelligence will prove to be instrumental in communicating with extraterrestrial intelligent beings. I’m assuming that we’ll make contact in the future. This may sound more like science fiction but it will occur, assuming we don’t destroy ourselves. I’d dearly love to be around when we do make contact, but I’m not holding my breath. The way things are going, we can’t even communicate civilly amongst ourselves let alone with aliens, who will be very different than we are. Come back ET! We need you.

Thanks for reading.