Jump to content

Tsuyoiko

Senior Members
  • Posts

    35
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Tsuyoiko

  1. How about this one? My personal view is that any attempt to draw an arbitrary distinction between humans and other animals is just speciesism, which in my opinion is no better than other forms of discrimination, such as racism, sexism or homophobia. I have reached this conclusion not through sentimentality, but by logical consideration. Bonobos pass the mirror test for self-awareness; they communicate with each other through vocalisation and can communicate with us using lexigrams; they can use tools; an adult bonobo is more intelligent than a human baby. Given these facts, under what criteria is it unacceptable to experiment on a human baby, but acceptable to experiment on an adult bonobo? Pure chauvinism, in my opinion. Better men than me have expressed moral discomfiture about speciesism; Richard Dawkins makes a good case in this essay. I'm not suggesting we ban animal experiments or start experimenting on babies! Organisations like USDA and CAAT work to ensure that animal experiments take place only when there is no alternative, and that those experiments that do take place are done in such a way as to minimise suffering. At the same time, I think we should openly acknowledge that we are committing speciesism, which, although morally wrong, is sometimes necessary.
  2. I'd definitely recommend it. It's an enjoyable read whether you care about, or even notice, the semiotics or not. If you like murder mysteries you'll especially enjoy it. It's one of the most ingenious I've read
  3. The following link has lots of graphs showing the negative correlation between intelligence and religiosity: http://kspark.kaist.ac.kr/Jesus/Intelligence%20&%20religion.htm I guess imagination is even harder to measure than intelligence. But I think it's a fair bet that more intelligent people are also more imaginative, just because imagination involves brain processes, seeing connections between things and coming up with new interpretations. Einstein famously said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge", and I think imagination is an important part of the Scientific Method, in the sense that scientists have to think up new ways of observing and testing, they have to spot patterns and formulate hypotheses. I think I might know what you're driving at though. Surely intelligent people must be less likely to come up with fantastical explanations for things, more likely to apply Occam's Razor or to search out scientific explanations. I don't know if there's much of a correlation there. I have a high IQ and a Mathematics degree, but I have a very broad regional accent and I use slang a lot in ordinary speech. I do wonder if you find more people with 'posh' accents at the top of their professions, but if so, that might be pure prejudice: an assumption that a posh voice equates with intelligence.
  4. I'm like this. Most music stresses me to point where I have to leave public places where it's playing. The best stress relief for me is reading a good book in complete silence, or building my character's stats in an RPG. The sense of achievement I get from seeing those numbers increase is really relaxing for me.
  5. I took the Mensa test as teenager and scored 148. In online tests I usually score around 150. I think IQ tests do test something real, i.e., how good you are at completing IQ tests. I think intelligence is a lot more complex than the results of one type of test can measure.
  6. Just to expand a bit on what Mokele says, the changes are cumulative. Continuing with your wolves, you won't get all white wolves in a couple of generations. But if an even slightly lighter coat makes the wolf cubs less susceptible to predators, it might mean that lighter wolves have 10 surviving cubs instead of 9, those cubs go on to have their own cubs. Maybe one or two of those are lighter still, so they have 11 surviving cubs etc etc. Eventually, after several hundreds or thousands of years you will get white wolves. I'm over-simplifying, but I think that's roughly how it works.
  7. Tsuyoiko

    Telomeres

    A couple of sources supporting the link between reduced calorie intake and delayed senescence: National Institutes of Health Nature
  8. Me too, I wonder if there's anything special about today?
  9. Hi Inquisitor I'm not a big fan of Tolstoy either. I think he moralised too much. However, I do think he had a real talent for characterisation. I find his characters very believable. My favourite by far is Dostoevsky. I love all his books and I almost feel like he's an old friend. I'm reading The Idiot at the moment, and it's almost like being back in my Philosophy tutorials at university, as well as being an absorbing novel. I like Solzhenitsyn, Gogol, Pasternak, Turgenev. Dr Zhivago is one of my favourite novels of all time. I think Lara Antipova is one of the greatest literary heroes ever created. Ooops, you got me started...
  10. Hi I'm Tsuyoiko, Mathematics and Philosophy graduate from the UK. I'm interested in everything scientific, but especially Maths, Quantum Theory, Neuroscience and Genetics, quite a random selection I guess. I'm also addicted to video games and Russian literature
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.