` (UTC)  :This is because terms like ``intelligent`` and ``smart`` are essentially relational. So if someone says ``Dick is smart`` and then it is shown that Tom and Harry can do the same things on the same tests as he can, then Dick's smartness means less. Of course, you can be a good post modernist and assert that it is the inalienable right of every living thing to be considered smart, from slime mould to humans, just as it is now asserted that every collection of humans in history has the right to be called a ``civilization`` even if they were naked paleolothic stone age tribes who had yet to discover fire. I think the original finding that pigeons and rats do well on these tests is quite plausible. The much overrated intelligence of cetaceans (and some other herd animals) is the result of romanticism run wild and without scientific discrimination. Dolphins CAN'T talk, think in the abstract, make future plans or do any of those things we associate with human intelligence. Yes, they ARE cute, and intelligent for animals, but they are not on our level.   05:03, 17 September 2009`