_Morpheus_ 
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| Shhhh, Elle has the floor. She will now recite the Ode to the Exploding Sheep or lamb, lamb everywhere and not a drop to eat ;-) |
Reply #1101. Jan 30 11, 11:37 AM
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flopsymopsy
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As long as the bits of the exploding sheep did not land on or in any way harm any innocent wabbits. ;)
Reply #1102. Jan 30 11, 11:40 AM
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_Morpheus_
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| If you think rabbits' feet are so lucky, then what happened to the rabbit? |
Reply #1103. Jan 30 11, 3:27 PM
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_Morpheus_
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If we came from an ape, we're in pretty bad shape
It's kind of like the raisin that came from a grape
We call them an animal, but who's the smarter mammal
Have you ever seen a guerrilla smoking a camel
For argument sake, there had to be a mistake
How much prozac does a monkey have to take
But if the theory is true, our intelligence grew
So why do we do all the dumb things we do
There've been no cases filed, out in the wild
About a chimpanzee who's been beating his child
The evolution track, put us ten steps back
Apes don't steal bananas to buy more crack
I'm sure monkies would agree, we ruined the family tree
We're the branch that puts people like Jerry Spinger on T.V.
Next time you're at the zoo, here's a project to do
Go tell the monkies that they're smarter than you |
Reply #1104. Jan 30 11, 3:28 PM
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| simontheodore
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Chimpanzees regularly practice cannabilism, infanticide, brutality, murder ... and they're notorious alcoholics and thieves. One could argue that we're no better than them, but we certainly are no worse! Anthropomorphizing most animals as isolated peaceful creatures is just delusional, and usually based on people who only see them caged in zoos (or worse on heavily-edited "Nature" TV shows) instead of in their natural environments.
Reply #1105. Jan 30 11, 7:41 PM
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_Morpheus_
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| Wow Simon! Why don't you tell us what you really think? Obviously, this struck a nerve with you. Sorry, It was only meant in jest. |
Reply #1106. Jan 31 11, 9:58 AM
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flopsymopsy
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I knew you were joking. I'm pretty sure that you know how to spell "monkeys". ;)
Reply #1107. Jan 31 11, 10:08 AM
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dippo
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I'm not too sure about some of the things being written here!
Reply #1108. Jan 31 11, 10:10 AM
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_Morpheus_
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| OK forget the part where it says go tell the monkeys(yea I spelled it right this time)they are smarter. Dang chimps are bad news ;-) |
Reply #1109. Jan 31 11, 10:12 AM
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_Morpheus_
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"I'm not too sure about some of the things being written here!"
Such As? |
Reply #1111. Jan 31 11, 10:15 AM
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_Morpheus_
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"I knew you were joking. I'm pretty sure that you know how to spell "monkeys". ;)"
Ha ha...
I plagiarized the whole thing, mistakes and all.
I thought it was kind of cute. No use messing about with the spelling ;-)
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Reply #1112. Jan 31 11, 10:18 AM
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dippo
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If Simon isn't careful, I'll start making baseless accusations about chipmunks!
Reply #1113. Jan 31 11, 10:50 AM
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| simontheodore
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Ian, there's absolutely nothing 'baseless' about my claim about Chimpanzees. A simple look into their disgusting behaviour will tell you exactly what I've said. Of course my reading about Travis the chimp did not help my attitude (he is the chimp a woman in Connecticut kept as a surrogate child, until it viciously ripped off a woman's face and arms).
My point being -- animals are animals, people are people.
A friend of mine went on and on about how she loved her horses more than humans because they were so much more nobler, blah blah blah. And I like horses. But I told her that if we interacted the same way with horses as we do with humans we would have a very different view of them. If you were waiting in line at the supermarket while all the Horse-clerks goofed off behind the counter and other horses cut in line in front of you and stepped on your feet; if talentless, arrogant horses had their own reality shows, and a damn horse cut you off in traffic driving over the speed limit, you would think no more of them than you do of people.
It's precisely because we don't interact with them in the same way that we can hold them to a different standard. Trying to apply the same standard is like proverbially comparing apples to oranges.
Reply #1114. Jan 31 11, 12:33 PM
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_Morpheus_
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"If Simon isn't careful, I'll start making baseless accusations about chipmunks!"
You're cracking me up dippo. I like the way you put that together old sport. I don't know if Simon caught your drift or not.
Simon check out dippo's avatar. He's a chimpanzee in a suit and tie. Simon, of course, is also a name of a well known chipmunk. So....I think dippo was just pulling your leg about the chimpanzee comments, Simon.
News and weather at 10:00.
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Reply #1115. Jan 31 11, 4:07 PM
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| simontheodore
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I got Ian's comment; it's just that this is something that has been driving me nuts of late!
I have another friend who insists her dog can tell time and has an opinion on the war in Iraq! When a dog writes something -- even something as mundane as an ode to marrow bones -- I'll start to believe we can actually compare the two. Otherwise, let's cherish animals for their own uniqueness instead of trying to compare them to humans.
Reply #1116. Jan 31 11, 5:14 PM
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Jazmee27
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OK, comparisons aside, animals do exhibit a certain intelligence (and some more so than others [dolphins, for instance, seem to know the difference between another dolphin and a reflection in a mirror; and birds are able to mimic certain sounds with amazing accuracy])
Reply #1117. Jan 31 11, 5:57 PM
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| simontheodore
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Jaz -- I don't doubt that animals have intelligence -- in fact if anything I am amazed at the intelligence animals do exhibit; the border collie that can recognize over a thousand toys is but one demonstration of this. Dolphins are another amazing mammal. There are myriad ways I am sure that animals are *more* intelligent than humans in ways we cannot understand. And this is the key. We *can't* understand them anymore than a dog can read Einstein to understand Physics. To a certain extent we just have to leave part of our understanding of other creatures to the unknowable.
Reply #1118. Jan 31 11, 6:10 PM
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_Morpheus_
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**This is just to stimulate interest. No judgments are made by the writer**
OK ,so humans are smarter than animals, at least we “think” we are. What about computers? Who holds the edge there?
Chess is tough game but the best human players can’t beat Deep Blue. How about a subject a little closer to home?
What if some of the best trivia players set down with a little ole computer and play Jeopardy. Who wins? The first warm up match with WATSON wasn’t even close as it beat two of the best trivia minds on the planet, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter.
“Watson has a certain self-awareness; it knows it won't get every answer right, and has to pass a certain level of confidence before it will answer. Watson's logo will change color to indicate its confidence: The lines that are part of its "avatar" will glow blue if Watson is confident, and orange if it's not.”
“Interestingly, Watson will not be connected to the Internet, so there won't be any instant Wikipedia lookups. (IBM's reasoning: "Ken [Jennings] and Brad [Rutter] aren't connected to the Internet, so Watson shouldn't be either.") So where does this AI brain get its information? IBM's engineers, without the benefit of the Internet, have to load all of Watson's information manually, which includes encyclopedias, thesauruses, dictionaries, books, screenplays, and other compendiums of human knowledge.”
“Watson, named after IBM's founder, is one epic supercomputer. To handle the formidable task that competing on Jeopardy! presents, IBM spent years constructing a computer with 2,800 Power7 cores. That power is absolutely necessary--a single-core CPU, like in many modern computers, takes about two hours to come up with an answer to a standard Jeopardy! question, rather than the three-second average Watson currently boasts.”
Hmmm...
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Reply #1119. Jan 31 11, 6:45 PM
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| simontheodore
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I'm surprised at you RJ. The computer / Human analogy is a false one. Totally! After all, it is humans who build these machines, humans who plan the circuits and program them. Can they best the true workings of a brilliant human mind? NO. But they can be much faster and more focused on any one specific task.
I wonder where the idea that computers are somehow these alien forms that fall to earth fully programmed. AI has a long long way to go before it can be programmed to write something comparable to Shakespeare. Or as inventive as Jules Verne, for that matter.
Reply #1120. Jan 31 11, 7:53 PM
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