Random question...

General
1

[i]This question came to my mind a few days back, you probably don’t know what I mean on the topic’s description. What Im saying is what animal do you compare yourself as? By persona, by appearance, by habits?

2 things:

  1. You cannot pick your Horoscope one

  2. you cannot pick human, because that what all of us are.

I compare myself to a wolf because:* My hair is messed up, like bed hair but I have a lot of hair, like a wolf.

  • I play my recorder or my ocarina out on the balcony, similar for a wolf standing on higher ground, howling.
  • Me and my friends are close and get along, we share food whenever one of us don’t have any, we get along and walk around school together. but in general, we get along, meet on a preferred place. We stand up for each other as well.
  • I get along with certain people, but Im mostly solitary, I don’t talk to everyone
  • I occasionally do certain things to save energy, assignments, or time, similar to wolves that save energy for the chase of their prey.

So, does anyone know what kind of animal they are according to their persona and traits?[/i][/color]

2

A NARWHAL.

'Cause I’m horny.

Seriously, though, I don’t like comparing myself to animals. I’m nothing like an animal, my needs are different, my behavior is different, my thoughts are different, my patterns are different.

3

You ARE an animal. Just with different needs, behavior, and thoughts. >_>

But in any case… I’d probably be a Dolphin. Why? Because they’re damn bright. :smiley:

4

you put the human race as a equil to animals? we are so different from animals that that post makes me kind of sick to my stomach. Have you ever seen a monkey build an empire that spans from spain to israel? (roman)

sorry to spam, so here’s something on topic.

I would probably be a scorpion because i like to stick to myself and am (mostly) passive, until attacked. then i strike back.

5

Alas, it seems I drag debates on animal/human relationships with me everywhere.

Even so, I will fight this to the end, unless a Mod comes and silences my annoying rant.

Anyway…Monkeys do not, at present time, have the intellectual capacity of humans. But that doesn’t mean monkeys aren’t learning and adapting. Did you know that dolphins converse with whistles, clicks, and physical gestures that are significantly MORE complicated than human speech? The average dolphin’s cerebral cortex is 40% larger than a human being’s, and sulci and gyri (“wrinkles”) equaling human complexity. Admittedly dolphins do have intellectual shortcomings when it comes to basic brain power, but their intelligence is uncannily close to a human’s. They have been seen using sponges as tools, rather like a monkey would use a stick. Their intelligence is significantly above primate level, as well. You may argue that, yes, dolphins do not function in an advanced civilization as we do, and I’ll concede that they aren’t quite as smart as we are…but we don’t give them a CHANCE. We pollute and overfish so much dolphins are rarely able to develop and evolve more complex brains. They’re too busy trying to dodge our fishing nets to build anything.

That said, emotional complexity is VERY apparent, and I pity the fool who will tell me that animals don’t have human emotion. That’s just not true. I’ve seen animals express more emotion than your common business man. I’ve seen dogs grieve at the loss of a sibling, I’ve seen cats cuddle their owners to comfort them, recognizing that their owners are distressed. None of these reactions are instinctual- animals aren’t instinctually required to show sympathy outside of their family, and I’ve seen it happen. Dolphins are also the only species besides humans to mate for fun- which is DEFINITELY not instinctual.

…

Although nobody cares I could go on.

6

That’s how I read that. I was like "scorpions aren’t emo :confused: "

Also, Algernon, you fail at evolution. Monkeys aren’t going anywhere >_>
They’ve stopped evolving.

As for dolphins, those of course remain more of a mystery, but dolphins aren’t capable of civilization, just physically. They can carry sponges in their mouths, but that’s about it. What’s more, they’re underwater, where fire is impossible, and without fire, civilization isn’t going anywhere. Also, “omg we pollute” is the lamest excuse ever. We’ve only been alive a million years, and only been polluting, at least to any extent that anyone cares about, for a couple hundred of those years.

As for your emotion dealie, that may be true, but it also may not be true. For instance, the difference could be the same as the difference between gazelle vision and human vision. Gazelles don’t see, not in the sense that you and I would use the word. Humans can observe what happens around them, and make judgments based on that. Gazelles can only see threats, and food, and such. That’s why they’re so much faster to react to things; their conscience doesn’t have to screen everything they see. They’re just automatons.
In the same way, humans might say “My brother died.” Then they start feeling sad. A Dog will simply realize the fact, and instantly mourn. The dog does not actually recognize that its brother died, it just reacts to it. Of course, this isn’t necessarily true, but it is an alternate hypothesis, so it makes no sense to say with definitiveness that humans are similar to animals.
I think you were trying to disprove just this with your instinct point, though, so I’ll cover that as well.
Animals have caretakers. Whether it be a mom, dad, sibling, or random person (an owner =o) Evolution dictates that you try and further your own genes. Therefore, you will want to please your caretaker. This becomes even more obvious with domestic animals, as a dog that doesn’t bond with its owner will simply be kicked out, shot, or fed to some animal or another (maybe a dog that gets along with the owner).
It’s a huge advantage to be friendly with the hand that feeds you, so it’s easily possible that the instinct developed.

7

Okay, first in order to reply to the original topic question, I would say the animal I am most like is a cat, for we share that same mysterious intelligence thing, For I am Edward the Kitty King! Right…second, to respond to the exciting evolution/animal thing. In all technicality, the human race are animals. True, they are an advanced race, that is considerably seperate from others, but biologically humans belong to the Kingdom Animalia, which every other “animal” that most people are referring to when they say animal is a part of. Another point, is that most people say that animals are not intelligent because they lack civilization, which brings up the question of what exactly is intelligence? Is it civilization? Because certain animals, like dolphins are incapable of creating a “civilization” because of where they live. Secondly, there are still several humans in backward rural places that have not technically created a civilization, and yet are still considered intelligent. Finally, I don’t exactly count the ability to waste millions of dollars and man hours to create really tall buildings shows incredible intelligence. Personally I think the achievement of domesticating other animals is more impressive.

(P.S. So I says to her, I says, “How can a camel, with a hump that small, fit through a door that big?” And she says to me, she says, “How can a doorknob, with a keyhole that small, open a door that big?” And I says to her, I says, “What?”)

8

How could you POSSIBLY know that monkeys have stopped evolving when we haven’t been around long enough to see evolution happen?

Dolphin’s don’t have appendages, it’s true. They also lack building materials, being underwater. But they don’t really need too. It’s not the same underwater as it is on land. Humans needed shelter because of weather conditions and land predators; all of the sea’s weather conditions can be dodged by going a couple feet deeper, and dolphins can outrun most of their predators, excepting humans. If they had any need for appendages, they probably would have evolved some long before we arrived to screw stuff up.

As long as we’ve been smart enough to study dolphins, we’ve been stupid enough to pollute, so the point still stands.

But I’ve seen animals form friendships that don’t provide them with anything but friendship, including other animals. You hear about those ghetto horse/dog love stories, in which a dog forms a strong and lasting friendship with the horse. The dog doesn’t need the horse’s friendship; the horse doesn’t feed the dog. So it’s not instinctual, it’s just genuine affection. I don’t see how your point about filters is relevant; delayed human emotion and instant dog emotion are still emotion.

In addition, I’ll argue that animals can be smarter than humans, simply because they don’t constantly develop new ways to kill themselves off. Humans are counter-evolving by developing nuclear weapons and guns and other tools of aggression. Animals may fight with each other, but they don’t seek world domination. If we’ve really come beyond animals, we wouldn’t squabble and fight on scales much larger.

9

  1. Monkeys have stopped evolving because their environments don’t allow them to get intelligence. Intelligence at this point will not help a monkey. What’s it gonna do, invent Monopoly? It doesn’t have the chance to become a dominant species in Africa, and New World monkeys are waayyy too stupid to evolve intelligence before the next mass extinction.
    Oh, and yes, we have seen evolution. There’s no argument about whether evolution exists. The argument is whether it’s what created us.

  2. Right, dolphins aren’t capable of using tools, and therefore have no reason to evolve that ability. So, they won’t, and haven’t.

  3. How is “As long as we’ve been smart enough to study dolphins, we’ve been stupid enough to pollute, so the point still stands.” in any way a valid argument? First of all, it’s false, and second of all, who cares how long we’ve been observing them? It’s not like they de-evolved from being capable of civilization. They’ve existed longer than us, and gotten nowhere. 200 years of pollution make no difference when they’ve had 10 million years already <_>

  4. Algernon, what is friendship? It’s an instinct too. If we feel strong emotions when we make friends, that’s still no guarantee that animals do. Don’t tell me making friends is a choice, or something you can avoid. It’s definitely wired deep into human brains, and animal brains.

  5. Finally, your “we’re nuking ourselves” argument. I heard a similar argument from my brother (he’s a Nazi <_<;) about why black people are better than white people. His reason is that they haven’t nuked anyone yet. Fun fact: just cause you’re not capable of something doesn’t mean you won’t, if you had the chance. Give all the leaders in Africa nukes, and the Earth WILL fall apart. Similarly, animals haven’t nuked anyone because they don’t know how to build a nuke. I know there are a few territorial tigers out there that would love to set up a perimeter defense with automated plasma turrets. What you’re ignoring is that animals do hurt themselves. They will overeat, they will kill off their whole food source. If you put a male and female deer in a room with a pack of wolves, you really think the wolves are gonna think about farming the deer instead of just eating them off? Animals aren’t smarter then us on any point. They’re just weaker.

Nostril Kitty: I think I covered pretty much all of your points as well? Except your backward rural place argument, to which I say that they’ve farmed, which is more than any animal can say for itself.

10

A geemer.

11

Ummm…All dolphins need is the domestication of plants and animals to create civilization. If they could farm fish, then they could create a civilization, so fire is not needed. For us, the domestication of plants and animals occured about 10,000 years ago. Also, we haven’t existed for a million years. We’ve actually only existed for about 20,000 years. Pretty crazy, huh?

Anyway, on topic, I usually characterize myself as a Lion. When I go to school, we always do what I want to do, we travel in groups, and eat like a pack of lions. Stealing food from each other, fighting over little things, and other such behaviors exhibited by Lions.

12

And how exactly would they keep the fish in their farms? <_<

13
  1. (yay for divisions that make debating easier) Monkeys would benefit from intelligence, since many apes are competitive, and an ape that can outsmart a rival clan is an ape that makes it to the next day.

I’m not a Creationist, but there are a few holes in Evolution that makes it a little theoretical. We’ve observed microevolution plenty of times, but macroevolution has yet to be witnessed. Or so I’m told.

  1. They ARE capable of using tools. They’ve used sponges. It’s a start.

  2. Of course they’ve gotten somewhere, they’re the most intelligent species that we’ve studied. They have complex conversations, and they can solve very complex puzzles (on the animal scale) and are clearly much brighter than chimps, who are our closest DNA brothers.

My point was, when you kill off Dolphins, you make them harder to study. I know that they’re not going to build an iPod in 200 years after it took them a couple million to get as far as they have, but even so, as they become more and more scarce (and too busy dodging fishing nets to build anything) they could be capable of things we don’t even KNOW about, because of pollution.

We’re quickly straying from the point, too- my point was animals CAN be capable of human intelligence, given the right amount of time. If you’ll agree that, in another ten million years, Dolphins can be as smart as your average human, the separation between humans and animals is no longer present, and we are in agreement.

  1. Friendship isn’t instinctual in animals that don’t require teams to survive. Rivalries and pacts between clans of chimps would warrant instinctual friendship with a powerful potential advisary. That isn’t the case in animals such as cats and dogs, who are EXTREMELY territorial and do not often form friendships with those they can’t mate with. There’s no reason for friendship.

  2. Exactly. If humans where above animals, they wouldn’t do that, would they? I completely agree that animals would also do that if they get the chance, but humans are stupid enough to do that too. If humans where peaceful, intellectual, and accepting, then I would say they where above animals. But they aren’t.

14

Have you ever seen a human build an empire that spans from Spain to Israel? <_>

Also, humans are classified under the “animal” category. More specifically “mammals”, “hominids”, or “homo sapiens”. The human race is “equal to” animals, because, well, we are animals. hands over some anti-nausea Zinthos

15

this discussion, again, seems to be heading back to your root beliefs and religion(sp?).

i do not classify humans because, clearly, we have been created (or evolved or whatever you believe in) supirior to all other species. if the other animals were even close to where we are now, they should be showing some kinds of development. there is no evidence of an invention made by another creature different from the ancestors before it. Sure, dolphins can use sponges for different things, but they were probably born with the instruction to do so.

16

My point is Dolphins are capable of becoming intellectual equals to humans. There are remarkable signs of intelligence from them, and since they’re some of the oldest fish in the ocean, they’ve clearly had the time to become what they are; give them a few more million years and we might not be so arrogant to think we actually deserve a separate categorization from animals.

17

But we do

lol

I think though that dolphins are smarter than humans, mice are smarter than them.

lol Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy

18

A pig.

People tells me that I eat like one.

19

_>

No, we don’t.

20

  1. (Yes, yay =D) They are competitive, but the human clan is winning. They simply wouldn’t produce that many more children from learning to build huts. The reason we (humans) evolved was because it let us take over the world, push like 10 rival species into extinction, and take the throne, so to speak, of the world.
    Also, yes, you are right, macroevolution has not been observed, but what with my dad teaching Evolution in a university, I’m kinda forced to agree that it exists >_>
    If you don’t, that doesn’t help your argument one bit… you’re just proving that they can’t be as smart as us =P

  2. They’re no more capable than birds and ants are (much less, actually). Ants can farm, birds can build. Yet, they’re not intelligent.

  3. Maybe saying they’ve gotten nowhere was a bit strong, but we’ve spent somewhere between one and two million years as humans, and look where we are now. They’ve spent 10 million years as dolphins, and they’re still cuddly mammals that live in the ocean.
    Also, “given the right amount of time” isn’t our argument. I’m saying that as of right now, I would not compare myself to any animal, including dolphins, because I’m eons away from them, evolution-wise. The “if” of whether dolphins had evolved does not concern me.
    Regarding the question of whether they will be smarter given time, there is no clear answer. Yes, it seems so, but there are a lot of different factors in that. Most important of those factors is that mutations are random. Therefore, there’s no reason that they should ever evolve.

  4. Alright, I give up on this point. I haven’t the foggiest idea why territorial animals make friends, but all I know is that if it’s an instinct in us, it’s probably an instinct in them, too. Maybe they do feel some emotion.

  5. You could argue that, I suppose. But you definitely couldn’t argue that animals are better because they don’t do that. They do do it, and how! At least member of our species can recognize that there’s a problem. Animals don’t realize what they’re doing. They’ll eat off their food source, and then curse the heavens (except they’re not smart enough for religion <_<;) for not having anything. When we all nuke each other, there’s a little Timaster and Algernon sitting there, thinking “Wait, wasn’t this a pretty suicidal plan?”
    We’ve made pacts not to use nukes and such, and that there’s still that threat is the fault of individuals, not the species.

EDIT:

…

…

I’m wondering if this deserves comment.
Oh well, I’ll address it:
First of all, dolphins aren’t fish. They’re mammals. Hence like, the lungs. This also makes them THE youngest animals in the ocean. Fish evolved into amphibians, who then evolved into reptiles, and then evolved into reptiles. In other words, considering how old amphibians, reptiles, and mammals are, fish are older than ALL of them, COMBINED. They’re not the oldest fish in the ocean, because they’re not fish, and because they’re the youngest animals in the ocean.
Though, to be honest, I don’t see how them being old helps your argument… if they’re young, that means they can evolve further. Fish are stupid, and there’s no doubt they’re staying that way after these hundreds of millions of years.