<story><title>Dogs can remember names of toys years after not seeing them, study shows</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/sep/04/dogs-remember-names-toys-years-study-pets-memory</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jumploops</author><text>It always bothers me how little intelligence we assume of and thus ascribe to the animal kingdom.&lt;p&gt;Especially to our mammalian brethren, who have many of the same underlying neurological mechanisms (though in differing quantities).&lt;p&gt;Dogs have co-evolved with humans for thousands of years.&lt;p&gt;Remembering names seems like a useful albeit unsurprising skill, especially when it comes to recognizing&amp;#x2F;avoiding danger.&lt;p&gt;“The bear&amp;#x2F;wolf&amp;#x2F;demon tribe is back!”&lt;p&gt;Will we ever stop looking down from our heavenly pedestal? Can we instead treat at our earthly contemporaries as different but equal?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>hdivider</author><text>Every time I encounter resistance to your points here, I feel like an alien among humans.&lt;p&gt;I think it cuts so deep into people&amp;#x27;s psychology, and frequently religion. The very notion that we are not the apex of anything. And that we no longer need to eat other animals to live and be healthy. Too much to bear for many, so it frequently results in low-quality conversation, laden with emotions.&lt;p&gt;The fact remains, however. Non-human animals are not that different from us. Pretty much all mental behavior is represented in the animal kingdom. &lt;i&gt;They&lt;/i&gt;, in so many ways, are &lt;i&gt;us&lt;/i&gt;. And we are them.&lt;p&gt;Why should it be otherwise, after all? It would be strange to have a quantum jump in mental behavior with humans, and only primitive behavior in all other animals.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;ll probably take some centuries for humans to see other animals as inherently worthy of respect.</text></comment>
<story><title>Dogs can remember names of toys years after not seeing them, study shows</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/sep/04/dogs-remember-names-toys-years-study-pets-memory</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jumploops</author><text>It always bothers me how little intelligence we assume of and thus ascribe to the animal kingdom.&lt;p&gt;Especially to our mammalian brethren, who have many of the same underlying neurological mechanisms (though in differing quantities).&lt;p&gt;Dogs have co-evolved with humans for thousands of years.&lt;p&gt;Remembering names seems like a useful albeit unsurprising skill, especially when it comes to recognizing&amp;#x2F;avoiding danger.&lt;p&gt;“The bear&amp;#x2F;wolf&amp;#x2F;demon tribe is back!”&lt;p&gt;Will we ever stop looking down from our heavenly pedestal? Can we instead treat at our earthly contemporaries as different but equal?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>accrual</author><text>I agree, I think there is a lot of intelligence around us, perhaps even in ways we don&amp;#x27;t fully see or imagine. One of the largest organisms on Earth is a mycelium network in Oregon, it&amp;#x27;s nearly 4 square miles in size.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.scientificamerican.com&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;strange-but-true-largest-organism-is-fungus&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.scientificamerican.com&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;strange-but-true-...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is it possible this mass of mycelium has some form of intelligence that is difficult for humans to measure? Maybe it &amp;quot;knows&amp;quot; things we can barely conceptualize. What about trees that stand in place for hundreds, or even thousands of years?&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.treehugger.com&amp;#x2F;the-worlds-oldest-living-trees-4869356&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.treehugger.com&amp;#x2F;the-worlds-oldest-living-trees-48...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Perhaps the trees experience time differently due to their slow growth, and they too have &amp;quot;witnessed&amp;quot; many different events in their environment over time, encapsulating them in the rings and structures within themselves.&lt;p&gt;We could write this off as non-sense as trees have no nervous system, but maybe a lack of such a system doesn&amp;#x27;t necessarily preclude some type of intelligence we just don&amp;#x27;t consider &amp;quot;intelligent&amp;quot;.</text></comment>