I had a discussion with @Towards_Keeperhood what we would expect in the world where orcas either are or aren’t more intellectually capable than humans if trained. Main pieces I remember were: Orcas already dominating the planet (like humans do), large sea creatures going extinct due to orcas (similar to how humans drove several species extinct, (Megalodon? Probably extinct for different reasons, weak evidence against? Most other large whales are still around)). I argued that @Towards_Keeperhood was also underestimating the intricacies that hunter-gatherers are capable of, and gave the book review for the secret of our success as an example. I think @Towards_Keeperhood did update in that direction after reading that post. I also reread that post and funnily enough stumbled over some evidence that orcas might have fallen into a similar “culture attractor” for intelligence, like humans:
Learn from old people. Humans are almost unique in having menopause; most animals keep reproducing until they die in late middle-age. Why does evolution want humans to stick around without reproducing?
Because old people have already learned the local culture and can teach it to others. Heinrich asks us to throw out any personal experience we have of elders; we live in a rapidly-changing world where an old person is probably “behind the times”. But for most of history, change happened glacially slowly, and old people would have spent their entire lives accumulating relevant knowledge. Imagine a world where when a Silicon Valley programmer can’t figure out how to make his code run, he calls up his grandfather, who spent fifty years coding apps for Google and knows every programming language inside and out.
Quick google search revealed Orcas have menopause too! While chimpanzees don’t! I would not have predicted that.
Main pieces I remember were: Orcas already dominating the planet (like humans do), large sea creatures going extinct due to orcas (similar to how humans drove several species extinct, (Megalodon? Probably extinct for different reasons, weak evidence against? Most other large whales are still around)).
To clarify for other readers: I do not necessarily endorse this is what we would expect if orcas were smart.
(Also I read somewhere that apparently chimpanzees sometimes/rarely can experience menopause in captivity.)
I had a discussion with @Towards_Keeperhood what we would expect in the world where orcas either are or aren’t more intellectually capable than humans if trained. Main pieces I remember were: Orcas already dominating the planet (like humans do), large sea creatures going extinct due to orcas (similar to how humans drove several species extinct, (Megalodon? Probably extinct for different reasons, weak evidence against? Most other large whales are still around)). I argued that @Towards_Keeperhood was also underestimating the intricacies that hunter-gatherers are capable of, and gave the book review for the secret of our success as an example. I think @Towards_Keeperhood did update in that direction after reading that post. I also reread that post and funnily enough stumbled over some evidence that orcas might have fallen into a similar “culture attractor” for intelligence, like humans:
Quick google search revealed Orcas have menopause too! While chimpanzees don’t! I would not have predicted that.
To clarify for other readers: I do not necessarily endorse this is what we would expect if orcas were smart.
(Also I read somewhere that apparently chimpanzees sometimes/rarely can experience menopause in captivity.)