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Joe Inhaber

Ape Genius reveals depth of animal intelligence - Telegraph - 1 views

  • By Paul Eccleston
  • 5:00PM BST 02 May 2008
  • Chimpanzees in Senegal make and sharpen spears with their teeth to go hunting. Like our own ancestors they have learned to use tools to kill their quarry more effectively.
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  • the skills to make a lethal weapon.
  • Ape Genius - which gives a fascinating insight into the depth of intelligence of animals who share 99 per cent of human genes
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  • Although they can be taught to recognise symbols and words they don't have the mental capacity to contribute to a 'conversation' - and they don't make small talk
  • And most important of all although they can imitate, they can't teach or build on the achievements others have made - unlike more successful humans.
  • But if apes have the power to reaso
  • n, learn skills, feel emotion and co-operate in a frenzied tree-top hunt for Colobus monkeys as chimpanzees do, why don't we have a planet of the apes?
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    There should be a sticky note on this page.
Daryl Bambic

Intelligent design - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

  • "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection.
  • version of the theological argument from design for the existence of God
  • leading proponents
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  • The leading proponents of this version of the argument are all associated with the Discovery Institute, a politically conservative think tank based in the United States, and believe the designer to be the Christian deity.
  • irreducible complexity
  • The scientific community therefore considers intelligent design a pseudoscience
  • ID proponents have sought to overturn the methodological naturalism inherent in modern science, proposing that it be replaced by "theistic realism" or "theistic science" in which ID presents a broadly theistic understanding of nature.[12]
  • a single system which is composed of several well-matched interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, wherein the removal of any one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning".[40]
  • mousetrap
  • Removal of any one piece destroys the function of the mousetrap
  • natural selection could not create irreducibly complex systems, because the selectable function is present only when all parts are assembled
  • bacterial flagellum of E. coli,
  • Coyne responds that in light of the evidence, "either life resulted not from intelligent design, but from evolution; or the intelligent designer is a cosmic prankster who designed everything to make it look as though it had evolved"
  • problem of poor design in nature
  • "What designed the designer?"
  • Invoking an unexplained being to explain the origin of other beings (ourselves) is little more than question-begging.
  • For a theory to qualify as scientific,[n 21][106][n 22] it is expected to be:
  • Consistent
  • Useful
  • Empirically testable
  • Based on multiple observations (often in the form of controlled, repeated experiments)
  • Typical objections to defining intelligent design as science are that it lacks consistency,[107] violates the principle of parsimony,[n 23] is not scientifically useful,[n 24] is not falsifiable,[n 25] is not empirically testable,[n 26] and is not correctable, dynamic, provisional or progressive.[n 27][n 28][n 29]
  • Intelligent design proponents argue that naturalistic explanations fail to explain certain phenomena and that supernatural explanations provide a very simple and intuitive explanation for the origins of life and the universe
  • There is a gap in scientific knowledge. The gap is filled with acts of God (or intelligent designer) and therefore proves the existence of God (or intelligent designer).[124]
Chrissy Le

Animal cognition - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

  • artificial language comprehension in the bottlenosed dolphin using cognitive research methods
    • Chrissy Le
       
      It's very interesting to think of animals being able to communicate between each other through various ways whether it be by speech, appearance, smell, etc.
  • Animal cognition From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  • study of the mental capacities of non-human animals.
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  • comparative psychology,
  • animal intelligence
  • mostly concerns mammals, especially primates, cetaceans, and elephants, as well as dogs, cats, and rodents.
  • and fish,
  • began in the late 1950s
  • John Lilly
  • other animals do have minds and that humans should approach the study of their cognition accordingly.
  • bottlenosed dolphins
  • particularly monkeys
  • Spatial cognition
  • The ability to properly navigate and search through the environment is a critical task for many animals.
  • Research in 2007 shows that chimpanzees in the Fongoli savannah sharpen sticks to use as spears when hunting, considered the first evidence of systematic use of weapons in a species other than humans.
  • Language
  • The modeling of human language in animals is known as animal language research.
  • Consciousness
  • The sense in which animals can be said to have consciousness or a self-concept has been hotly debated; it is often referred to as the debate over animal minds.
  • It has been suggested that metacognition in some animals provides some evidence for cognitive self-awareness.[11] The great apes, dolphins, and rhesus monkeys have demonstrated the ability to monitor their own mental states and use an "I don't know" response to avoid answering difficult questions. These species might also be aware of the strength of their memories.
  • This page was last modified on 26 November 2011 at 11:42.
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    Indeed it is an interesting topic. Please don't bookmark wikipedia articles but maybe check out one of their references on the topic. You could also use some of the names of the anthropologists working in this field that we learned about. Susan Savage Rumbage was one who was featured in the documentary 'Ape Genius' and who worked with Kanzi.
Daryl Bambic

Intelligent Design Network :: Seeking Objectivity in Origins Science - 0 views

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    Propose this site as an evaluation activity to the students.
Daryl Bambic

The Evolution, Creationism, and Intelligent Design Controversy - 0 views

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    Law students build both sides of the argument.
Chrissy Le

Animal Minds - National Geographic Magazine - 0 views

  • ublished: March 2008
  • By Virginia Morell
  • Irene Pepperberg, a recent graduate of Harvard University
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  • She brought a one-year-old African gray parrot she named Alex into her lab to teach him to reproduce the sounds of the English language.
  • They were simply machines, robots programmed to react to stimuli but lacking the ability to think or feel. Any pet owner would disagree.
  • many scientists believed animals were incapable of any thought.
  • controversial.
  • How, then, does a scientist prove that an animal is capable of thinking—that it is able to acquire information about the world and act on it?
  • Certain skills are considered key signs of higher mental abilities: good memory, a grasp of grammar and symbols, self-awareness, understanding others' motives, imitating others, and being creative.
  • chimpanzees use a variety of tools to probe termite mounds and even use weapons to hunt small mammals; dolphins can imitate human postures; the archerfish, which stuns insects with a sudden blast of water, can learn how to aim its squirt simply by watching an experienced fish perform the task.
    • Chrissy Le
       
      Reminds me of the video we had to watch for homework, very interesting, and great information for my TFAD project!
  • Chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas have been taught to use sign language and symbols to communicate with us, often with impressive results.
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  • © 2011 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.
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