Hobbes' Choice wrote:Harbal wrote:Hobbes' Choice wrote:
You asked what mental acts a dolphin could perform, not whether of not I regret not being able to do what a dolphin can do.
If you think that dolphins have superior minds to humans it can't be based solely on the shape and size of their brains. There must be something else about them that leads you to that conclusion.
Dolphins are masters of their environment. They have long lives and seem to have fun. They can do clever stuff too.
But the thread is about complexity, and that is why I mentioned the brain of a dolphin, which is (regardless of what you say) more complex than your own brain.
One one level I see brains per se as just one more example of nature's tendency for relatively homogeneous material to form areas of concentration as they cool - particlisation. Atoms, gas clouds, stars, planets, galaxies, galactic clusters, cells, multicellular structures, encephalisation, colonies, cities, institutions ... in each case some area of greater concentration starts building up more rapidly than the surrounding environment and in time new properties emerge from the buildup.
No matter which way one looks at it, human and dolphin brains appear certain to be superseded by things that are kilo-for-kilo, much more information-dense.