I have owned two dogs and four cats. the two female cats were scary smart. one figured out that disconnecting wall power prevented hated appliances from running. the other figured out how to work doorknobs. both boys just destroyed things, though the little one now knows he can follow his sister around waiting for her to unlock doors, and destroy what’s on the other side. the dogs were both female. very clever but not levers or electricity clever.
my thoughts on the post actually aren’t based on my experience with fuzzy companions, though. we know the brain creates dedicated structures for different purposes, like processing sound or vision, smells, balance, etc. it’s not clear to me that every neuron contributes linearly to the richness of one’s experience or intellect. maybe I can discern some sound someone else can’t, but maybe that’s not relevant unless I ever hear it. also if discerning it took 10,000 neurons versus a million, maybe I’ll still experience the sound the same way - as some abstract, high order thing. maybe the 10,000 neuron structure is more efficient at the same task.
to me, dogs devote a significant amount of their intellect to pleasing humans, which makes sense since they’ve spent so many generations dependent on a favorable social relationship with us for survival.
maybe that’s the 100k right there.
what’s more striking to me from this article is how similar dogs and cats are - plot the dogs, cats and humans together on a log scale and that won’t be the difference that jumps out at you.
