The case for whales actually matching or even surpassing the intelligence of humans : r/biology
When I say whales and dolphins are intelligent, virtually no one will disagree with that, I think. But more intelligent than us? Only some New Age “the wisdom of Mother Nature is beyond our comprehension” type of hippies would agree with that, right? I mean, sure, dolphins can perform tricks they learned at SeaWorld, but that’s nothing we wouldn’t also expect from a dog. No, as we understand and define intelligence, we are clearly at the top, granting a distant second place to chimpanzees, probably, our closest relatives. And yet I wonder if we aren’t mistaken. Gravely mistaken. And I’m not a hippie, but a scientist with a PhD in neurobiology, for what it’s worth. Please hear me out. Let me start by talking about size. Because it clearly matters. But also, how much does it matter? Like, obviously whales have much bigger brains than us. But so what? So do elephants. And while elephants are also clearly smart for an animal, no elephant ever wrote a book, so there. Size doesn’t matter. Ye