Basal cognition: what is intelligence? (Evolution)

by dhw, Friday, June 21, 2024, 12:02 (153 days ago) @ David Turell

QUOTE:"[…] "No surprise, then, that the traits recognisable to us as intelligence co-occur almost exclusively in modern humans.”

And later: “It is primarily a synonym for humanness.”

dhw: I’m aghast at the sheer arrogance of these statements. […]

DAVID: You are so aghast, because there are others unlike you who do not share your love of intelligence in lower forms. I am one of them. Beware of anthropomorphizing others' mental capacities. What looks intelligent can be the result of intelligent design providing intelligent responses to needs or changing environment.

dhw: I went on to list the attributes that most of us would regard as signs of intelligence.

DAVID: Yes, anthropomorphized intelligence the author warns against.

Cognition, sentience, and sensory, communication, information-processing and decision-making capabilities are not anthropomorphized. You have agreed that other life forms have all these capabilities:
DAVID: You have given the proper list and i agree to it with the proviso that it equally be all from intelligent design, in which I believe.

dhw: Your response is ambiguous. I’m quite happy to accept the possibility that all these attributes were designed by your God if he exists. But do you agree that such God-designed attributes enable organisms to take their own decisions and solve their problems AUTONOMOUSLY?

DAVID: At a simple day-to-day adaptation of action level. My dog shows purposeful activity all of the time.

Nobody would claim that the intelligence of our fellow animals extends to human levels. You agree that solving problems, taking decisions etc. denote autonomous intelligence in our fellow animals. Thank you.

Ant intelligence:

This subject somehow morphed into discussion of your illogical theory of evolution and my logical alternatives.

DAVID: Again, you struggle to sneak in an overly humanized God. God in no sense is human.

Once again, you tell us your God is unknowable, but you know that he has no thought patterns or emotions like ours, although a short time ago he probably and then possibly had thought patterns and emotions like ours.