On: A Cephalopod Has Passed a Cognitive Test Designed ...

[macintux]

Every time I read about octopi I'm stunned at their intelligence and ability to connect with humans.

If our civilization lasts long enough, someday we'll all be reviled for eating animals, especially octopi and pigs.

[koalahedron → macintux]

Taken further, you might argue that there might be condemnation eventually of the whole concept of pets and work animals too. I'm not sure I "condemn" these ideas, but I don't have a pet because I think animals should be wild. I make my own ethical comprimises, though, don't get me wrong.

Harry Harrison wrote a book I read many years ago called West of Eden, where the dinosaur extinction event didn't occur. An advanced species of lizard used modified lifeforms for their tech. I have it on my list to read again. It does make you think people might be more symbiotic towards the world rather than what we have now.

[RamRodification → macintux]

How come you include pigs but leave out cows?

[Ruthalas → RamRodification]

The parent commenter has probably, like me, heard that pigs are remarkably intelligent. I haven't heard the same of cows.

That may very well be a skewed understanding, but it's likely why they choose that grouping.

[OrbitRock → Ruthalas]

Personally, I don’t see cows as very different from dogs.

They’re just as social and emotional as dogs are.

Intelligence wise, dogs are probably a bit smarter. But how much, I don’t know, they don’t seem that radically different.

[Ruthalas → OrbitRock]

I suspect you have more experience than I, and I know my imagining is poorly founded!

I think pigs have just received enough good PR recently that they come to mind as another particularly intelligent animal.

[RamRodification → Ruthalas]

Maybe the size also helps? Closer to a dog or a cat, cows are not.