[lbo-talk] AI & animal intelligence

[John Thornton]

Important distinction? The labeling of dogs as "more intelligent" than cats 
is absurd. Cats are good at being cats and dogs are good at being dogs. 
Dogs trainability stems primarily from their being pack animals rather than 
solitary like cats. One could just as easily say cats are "more 
intelligent" than dogs because of their greater ability to hunt alone and 
outsmart their prey rather than depend on simply overwhelming their prey 
with a pack. Both statements are equally absurd. As both a dog and cat 
owner in my experience the emotional range of these animals is not greatly 
different. Again being pack animals dogs have a repertoire of behaviors 
more familiar and pleasing to humans, not greater or lesser than cats. As 
far as the trainability of cats, you have obviously not seen a cat circus. 
Dogs are more suitable for the specific types of training humans tend to 
prefer though. This says nothing about their intellectual superiority to 
others members of the animal kingdom. I'm surprised to hear someone make an 
argument like this.

John Thornton

At 02:20 PM 11/21/03 Brian Siano wrote:
>This reminds me of an important distinct in animal intelligence, namely, 
>dogs and cats. Cat owners are fond of saying that their cats are more 
>intelligent than dogs, but by and large, this isn't true. Dogs are _far_ 
>more intelligent. They have a wider repertoire of behaviors, a wider range 
>of emotions, and can be trained to perform much more complex tasks than 
>cats can.
>
>This is where cat owners remark "That's because cats are too smart to 
>want  to be trained" as though it's freshly-minted wit. But the claim 
>could be made about amoebas as well. But the point is made with a simple 
>question: how many seeing-eye cats are there in the world?
>
>Basically, cats have a repertoire that works well enough for them. Dogs 
>have a bigger repertoire, which means there are more things they can do... 
>which means they have more ability to _fuck up_. (Humans have even greater 
>capabilities for fucking up.) So, a greater capacity to disagree isn't a 
>bad yardstick for intelligence.