Slashdot Mirror
Oxford Scientists Say Dogs Are Smarter Than Cats
Velcroman1 writes "This again: scientists at Oxford University claim canines are smarter than felines. And the reason, according to the researchers, is that dogs are more social animals and therefore have bigger brains than the more solitary-inclined cats. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, charted the evolutionary history of various mammals' brains over 60 million years and found a link between the size of an animal's brain in relation to its body and how socially active it was."
Agreed. By this logic, Facebook and Twitter users are the cream of the intellectual crop.
I weep for mankind...
"I love animals! Some are cute, others are tasty, what's not to like?" - Betsy Schroeder, Jeopardy contestant
If Hitler were going around these days, he'd almost certainly start with the folks on MySpace followed by the folks on Facebook and finish up with the folks on Twitter, before he got to the rest of the people he wanted to remove from the gene pool.
The reason you don't see helper cats is that cats are too smart to be exploited like that. Cats have helper humans.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
That socially overactive bimboslut who's flunking math class is actually much smarter than the super nerd in the corner who doesn't have any friends but aces all his math tests. Yes, that's right, being social and interacting with others is the new measure of smart!
Then I guess cats are better at math.
All my cats respond to voice and gesture commands, easily.
That's easy when your commands are "sit still," "nap," "blow me off," and "lick your ass"
Any married man can tell you the fallacy in your logic.
They love lulling us into a false sense of security.
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
We communicate with dogs the way w communicate with intelligent creatures.
By giving them biscuits when they do what you tell them to do? Sounds more like oppression to me.
Living With a Nerd
To lull us into a false sense of safety.
Exactly!
Please, for Humanities sake, read this guide that details How to Tell if Your Cat is Planning to Kill You.
I have a dog. He likes to eat shit. When he was younger, he used to eat his own shit until there was enough negative reinforcement to break the disgusting habit. My neighbor's dogs used to try and raid the litterbox too, so it's not a behavior unique to my own lovable retard.
I also have two cats. Neither of them eat shit. Q.E.D.
A host is a host from coast to coast...
Unless it's down, or slow, or fails to POST!
Because they got tired of their old toys.
I refute it thus.
Cats chase potential prey animals like lunatics, even when they've already established that they're not actually prey. Dogs engage in recreational activities involving sticks. Which sounds like an intelligent species?
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
You would go get the stick wouldn't you?
I have a cat who figured out the laser pointer. When I try to use it, she just stares at my hand with a look that says, "seriously?"
Comment of the year
I thought phrenology was thoroughly out of fashion since Gould debunked Morton and Broca in "the Mismeasure of Man".
But who cares about that. The Internet is made of cats! On with the cat stories!
Our eight-year-old ginger tabby taught himself to use the toilet. I'm not kidding.
I was wondering why I kept finding the toilet unflushed, and little splashes on the rim. The kids claimed it wasn't them, but I didn't really believe them.
Then one day I walk in, and there's the cat sitting on the toilet. He looks up at me with a perfect "Excuse me, can a guy get some privacy around here" expression on his face and keeps right on peeing.
My dog taught herself to dig up cat feces and eat them.
In short, dogs made man, what he is today.
What, not able to use commas properly?
I like you, Stuart. You're not like everyone else, here, at Slashdot.
But how do you know she's actually trying to catch the fishes?
I've seen humans tap the glass of fish tanks, and most of them certainly know they can't catch the fish through the glass, nor do they intend to break the glass.
Many fish don't appear to know that though and so _respond_ accordingly. And that might be enough for your cat. I doubt someone playing a game is trying to catch something inside an iPad ;).
As for whether cats or dogs are smarter, I don't really care. Most don't seem smart enough to be given that much responsibility anyway.
What concerns me are transhumans/posthumans. When scientists start creating human hybrids or very intelligent creatures. At what point do you consider an entity "human", as it it gets the rights, privileges AND responsibilities of a human being?
If society is not ready to answer that question in the near future, then scientists shouldn't be forcing the issue onto society by researching into such directions. It would just lead to more evil being inflicted. Augmenting humans is a different thing from creating more humanlike entities.
If we are creating creatures with near human intelligence (or even smarter) for the purpose of enslaving them, is that really such a good thing? If we are not going to enslave them, what the heck are we doing - we haven't even solved the racism problem yet.
When your pets get really smart, you better hope they treat you nicely, whether because they find you cute and adorable, or something... Maybe out of our good example (haha).
hmmm, interesting, I think your post is a really good example of why you should not take acid (or whatever) and then post to slashdot.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.