Cats and Dogs

Scott Hardie | November 27, 2002
Yesterday's entry in Alan Boyle's Cosmic Log got me thinking about the intelligence of cats and dogs. (entry here) I prefer cats as a pet, but I believe dogs are more intelligent, because they seem to reason more like we do, and they respond to operant conditioning better.

But this discussion got me thinking about a problem: Just because dogs think more like humans doesn't mean that they're more intelligent. Hell, we believe we're smarter than AI because we have simple common sense, but obviously computers' capacity for processing information is vastly superior to ours. Does this mean that we won't recognize alien intelligence if we encounter it, because it may be quite different from our own? That's where the discussion leads. Maybe there will someday be a revolution in which human intelligence is not seen as the pinnacle of intelligence, just like how over time, Earth was no longer considered the center of the universe.

Matthew Preston | November 28, 2002
I'm just looking forward to the first clone baby supposed to be born in Italy this January.

Jackie Mason | November 28, 2002
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | November 28, 2002
Look Jackie, if you're calling me stupid, you're calling both my cats stupid too! :-)