Originally Posted by HydrogenBond  One way to look at the brain, to help determine conscious evolution for other animals, is with a computer analogy. If you look at the octopus, connected to its brain are very complex input-output devices. It has to move eight arms, can change color even using patterns. Its brain is sort of multi-tasking in ways that require a lot of base processing power. Its adaptation is excellent, but the brain may have less free CPU bandwidth.
Humans don't have sensory systems at par with a lot of animals. For example, the eagle can see better, the dog can hear and smell better, etc. This better quality peripheral devices, in these animals, may come with some CPU cost. Humans are more frail but the trade-off may be more free CPU bandwidth for ingenuity. In the final analysis, this is what makes the difference since we can invent technology to see farther, move faster, hear better, without biologically tying up as much CPU bandwidth.
A good analogy is running the monitor at different resolution settings. The highest settings can place a strain on the CPU during games. If you try to doing other things at the same time there is little bandwidth. With humans our monitor settings, so to speak, were reduced in resolution compared to many of the animals. This freed up more CPU bandwidth. Losing natural instinct was analogous to shutting off background processes.
If I was to guess the most likely animal for evolutionary consciousness, I would pick the dog. There are many factors. One is domestication shut off some of their background processes freeing up bandwidth. Dogs have the ability to work in groups, both with other dogs, other animals and with people. They are adaptive able to survive almost anywhere. Apes are like orchids, beautiful, but too narrow in adaptation. One key thing about dogs is they are the master of linguistics able to learn any human language; not just language but dialects. They can also read body language and emotion. They can also teach and supervise other animals, such as during herding. They like the company of humans, which has given them an evolutionary edge. Mother nature made them apprentice; next in line. They needed to go to human school to get the right training. The apes were food.
What is sort of interesting is the relationship some dog owners and their dogs. One almost gets the impression little "fifi", is in charge. The dog reacts to the human and if the human wants them to be the boss, the dog is smart enough to play along. After a while it learns to control and tries to teach the human the cause and affect needed for its whims. "not that cookie you know I don't like liver flavor; or I will teach you to leave me alone that long; or you need something to do, so clean this up. The human apprentice gradually adapts to the ways and moods of their canine master. |
