Are we really smarter than dolphins?

Thats horrible Avatar..... they were playing football!!!! Havent they ever heard of basketball before!!! That is such a cruel sport.

No really, thats awful. Weren't the ethnic fighters smart enough to throw rocks on the field?
 
nebula, I'd like to see you spotting an almost invisible net underwater while travelling at high speeds.

What is it with people? Don't compare them to us. They don't need technology so why would they want to make cars.
 
Now that I think about it Dolphins probably have a vast underwater kingdom. They live in perfect harmony with nature and man until man started to pollute the water and the air. So now they bring out the ULTIMATE DOLPHIN WEAPON! EL NINO!!! Think about it. Why go to war with someone when you can just wipe them out indirectly with storms and such..... very scarey.

I think I just heard a van pull up outside guys.... Oh my God! Its dolphainsakls alkdsl dk

Hehe I was just kidding guys. Dolphins cant come out of the water we all know that. As for the secret kingdom that was all bull. THERE IS NO SECRET KINGDOM.

Have a nice day. End Transmission.
 
c'mon- you all are talking as if I ment that dolphins were super intelligent beings. I see you fail to see the full thought of that quote.
It's not a question about dolphins, it's a question about us and what we think is regarded as intelligence and what we think of ourselves to that matter. About our value system and superiority feeling just because others are not like us, and....
ahhh... I quit!
 
DUDE, WHAT THE HELL HAVE I BEEN SAYING....gees

whoops, too much caps, sorry :bugeye:
 
This is Compund Coffe. Yes that will do nicely. "Uh Dan I dont think you should type this stuff out."
"I cant type ive got fins, you need to shut up this one has that voice activation software crap."

"Oh I see, just remind them that theres no secret kingdom whatsoever."

"I was about to do that before you interupted."

THERE IS NO SECRET KINGDOM IN THE OCEAN..
"You idiot dont tell them where it is."
 
"It is of interest to note that while some dolphins
are reported to have learned English - up to fifty
words used in correct context - no human being
has been reported to have learned dolphinese."
-Carl Sagan
 
I honestly don't think humans are smarter than dolphins at this evolutionary stage. They are 40 million years older than us and that counts for alot. Their brains are proportionately the same size as ours but they would use them for real life and philosophy and not waste it on politics and celebrity's lives. The numerous cetacean languages are easily as diverse as the human languages and in most cases more diverse.
They can also create four and a half times more sounds per unit of time than us. That accompanied with their long illustrious history HAS to equate to some serious spiritual wisdom. Wisdom not only greater than ours but incomprehendable to our "rookie" brains.
Of course we are technologically smarter but who is to say that counts for jack shit? We work to eat, they play and eat and probably do a hell of alot of thinking. How much did you learn from society and the educational system? compare that to how much you have learned by yourself just from thinking and observing. For me there is no comparison, more than most of my knowledge has come from wondering, thinking and observing, activities which cetaceans probably do in spades.
We are so new to the planet that in a way we are the planets dumbest animal. We aren't spiritually prepared for the brains we possess, our "progression" will inevitably be the end of us, probably before we reach one million, the average lifespan for a species is 50 million years, we will be an evolutionary joke without a doubt and we'll take down a few innocent species with us.
But ,even though we had a good crack at it for a hundred years, I don't think we will finish the cetaceans and I don't think they will ever finish themselves.
We know so much about humans that its all too easy to say they are the smartest creaures on earth but the more you learn about cetaceans and watch them the more apparent their supreme intelligence becomes. I have more to say somewhere in my head but I'll leave it at that.
An amazing eye-opening book is "whale nation" seriously check it out.
 
Dolphins love to look at themselves if a mirror is nearby. They will have a look of disgust at any imperfection on their bodies, such as a black circle.
Click to expand...

Out of the entire article that I've found, which I will post in a moment, this seems to be the most human thing about dolphins. If they get pissed off about little things on their body, then that means they have self awareness. They know that they're alive, and that they have control over their bodies, and that what they do affects the world. I happen to think that's pretty cool.

Dolphins have a special way of communicating with other dolphins. They use the same ultrsonic sound or sonar that they use for navigation. They have a more sophisticated language than other creatures and have been seen chatting to one another for long periods of times. Dolphins don't have vocal chords, however, and can't use facial expressions or body language like humans.
Click to expand...

When you think about it, we do a lot of communicating through ways other than our vocal chords. We also have a written language. Not having those two things make their language, IMO, somewhat inferior to our own. They may be able to learn a few words of our language, but I don't know if they'd be able to understand facial or bodily expressions.

Here

dolphin.gif


Dolphins Evolve Opposable Thumbs

It is unknown what precipitated the dolphins' sudden development of opposable thumbs. Some dolphin behaviorists believe that the gentle marine mammal, pushed to the brink by humanity's reckless pollution and exploitation of the sea, tapped into some previously unmined mental powers to spontaneously generate a thumb-like appendage. However, given that 95 percent of the world's dolphin experts have committed suicide since learning of the development, the full story may never be known.
Click to expand...

The Onion is always insanely funny. I had a subscription, but appear to have lost it for some reason...
 
I agree that the fact we have written history does give us an advantage in communication. But still, they would most probably have a form of legend and philosophy, stories and theories would have been passed down from parents to children and so on. Over 30 million years thats got to bring out some REALLY profound stuff. I think we have the potential to become more intelligent because of our hands and ability to pass knowledge on globally and store knowledge and so on but at this stage it is arrogant to assume we are. They have been around so much longer than us. It pains me to think we might be selling them short and it would be a great injustice to do so.
There would be individuals amongst them just like us, some would be dumb and some would be smart. I think the best vs the best of each species would be pretty damn close.
As a species I believe they are superior to us, they live in harmony with the planet, dream, play and have sex.... they have alot of sex, thats good thinkin'!
 
Originally posted by Pollux V
The Onion is always insanely funny. I had a subscription, but appear to have lost it for some reason...
Click to expand...
:p
I've loved the onion for a while now but that was the awesomest aricle I've ever seen. I'd love to meet the guy who wrote that. Its so funny how tools start washing up on the shore, god thats good :p
They know their stuff too.
 
i saw on TV that dolphins have names and therefore it must be true...it might also have been mentioned above, but i was too lazy to read everything...

but anyhoo...

if they have names then they are 'human.'
 
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