tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post3767756056615437022..comments2024-02-29T03:57:00.088-05:00Comments on The Mermaid's Tale: Blown out of proportion, or culture rules!Anne Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09212151396672651221noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-19080630754894477112009-12-30T13:17:46.713-05:002009-12-30T13:17:46.713-05:00Actually, I think that (partly out of self-admirin...Actually, I think that (partly out of self-admiring hubris) we humans have assigned other species to a more rigidly programmed (automaton-like) life than is actually the case. Even ants are not as highly programmed as their image. Or, for that matter, plants.<br /><br />We tend to say that other species they are just responding to pre-wired chemicals, signals, and so on. But our brains are just chemical-exchange units, too.<br /><br />So I do not think we're any kind of bifurcation. Our ability to have culture is a quantitative difference that in itself may be small, but culture can evolve on its own and we can inherit it, and its thousands of year's build-up legacy. So we seem more different than we biologically are, I would say.<br /><br />This is not to deny that we do have cognitive abilities that far exceed other current species.Ken Weisshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02049713123559138421noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-61915572306608457372009-12-30T01:22:34.865-05:002009-12-30T01:22:34.865-05:00Do you believe then that in the capacity for indet...Do you believe then that in the capacity for indeterminism which you have described above humanity represents a radical bifurcation from all other species?Arjunhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04388786712611397453noreply@blogger.com