My Book Report

I've managed to finish another book.

The latest endeavour The Parrot's Lament by Eugene Linden.

Its a book about whether or not animals may fit the definition of "intelligence."

For your perousal, here's the closing passage....

WARNING FOR THOSE OFFENDED BY READING CLOSING PASSAGES BEFORE READING THE REST OF THE BOOK, DO NOT READ BELOW!

"What is intelligence, anyway? If life is about perpetuation of a species, and intelligence is meant to serve that perpetuation, then we can't hold a candle to pea-brained sea turtles who predated us and survived the asteroid impact that killed off the dinosaurs. During our brief tenure of 200,000 years on this planet, we have pushed the biosphere's life-support system to the limit and played dice with the ozone layer and climate, two necessary preconditions for a habitable world and sustenance. How intelligent is that? Does anyone seriously think that we can continue (sic) use our gifts for invention and communication for another few thousand years without bringing upon ourselves a man-made apocalypse---much less the 165 million years that turtles have found a way to survive.

As we are proving, without some controls to represent the long-term interests of the biosphere, our brand of intelligence is dangerous. Perhaps it has come and gone several times in different species in the past. The unfettered application of propositional abilities does not seem to be a prescription for long-term evolutionary success. Once minds break free of religious, cultural, and physical controls, they burn hot and fast, consuming and altering everything around them. Perhaps this is why higher mental abilities, though present in other creatures, are more limited and circumscribed.

A good deal of the blood that goes to the brain in humans goes to the muscles in our closest relatives, the chimps and bonobos. The brain is literally subordinated to the demands of the body. It's a trade-off that is the rule in nature rather than the exception. One doesn't have to impute a plan to evolution to see an implied judgment that long-term success comes to those creatures who fit the needs of larger ecosystems rather than those who presume to alter ecosystems to their needs.

Even if shackled, however, some intelligence illuminates the lives of countless creatures. When we deal with captive animals and when we encounter them in the wild, we can see it peeking out in a flash of brilliance here and there as animals draw on abilities that help them secure food and prosper within their communities in order to manipulate, deceive, beguile, and otherwise deal with the humans they encounter. Every so often, they do something extraordinary, and we gain insight into where some of our abilities might have originated. Perhaps more important, we can then understand how it might be fun to be an orangutan or a parrot. They and many other creatures enjoy a life rich in emotions and physical prowess but still are gifted with the ability to appreciate life from a distance, even if its horizons are more constriained than those of the heady, perilous view from Olympus that is our blessing and curse."

Whoa, that's a lot of typing......anyhow, let you know when I finish another.....