Introduction
The novel, Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy by Douglas Adams, is an intriguing piece of science fiction in which every moment something unpredictable happens. In the novel, he shows mice as the most intelligent species on the planet Earth, even smarter than humans. Frankie and Benjy, the two mice, were behind the creation of Earth and the exploration of the answer to life, the Universe and everything as well as the question. In fact, humans are ranked to be the third smartest living organisms in the world and dolphins are ranked second. This leads to the question, who is the smartest living organism in the real world and how their intelligence could be measured? Is it in fact mice or dolphins or is it us, humans?
The following project is going to be examining the ways in which intelligence is measured by current scientists, following the comparison of intelligence in the three living organisms mentioned in the novel.
How intelligence is measured?
Intelligence is measured based on three aspects: ability for reasoning, problem solving, and learning. IQ test is one of the first test created by psychologists, to measure human intelligence. Later realized, it wasn’t as accurate. Furthermore, a very common method which has been scientifically proven to measure the intelligence is by measuring the size of the brain. The larger the brain size the higher the intelligence. This method can be used for humans as well as animals. However, for accurate results, only one test cannot be relied upon. A combination of tests are taken for precise results.
Intellectual Level: Mice
In the novel, mice are mentioned as the most intelligent species on Earth. It is shown that mice are neither Earth born species, nor senseless rodents. According to the author, they are extremely smart creatures who build the computer, Deep Thought, and order Earth to solve the problem of life, the universe, and everything. They are described as “protrusions into our dimension of vast hyperintelligent pan dimensional beings". In other words, they live in different dimensions that humans haven’t reached yet. Moreover, in his work of science fiction, mice appear to be superior than humans; controlling them instead of being controlled by them. This could be seen when the author mentions that the planet Earth was commissioned, paid for, and run by mice. They are shown to be the leaders of the planet above all the species. He includes that these mice might be doing experiments on Earth creatures; which shows the dominance of mice among the society. However, in the real world its vice versa. Mice are subject to several scientific experiments carried out by humans. The most well-known being a maze race ,in which each mouse isolated in a maze with a reward at the end. The reason they are used in a lot of experiments is because their biological and behavioral characteristics closely resemble humans. Therefore, based on their responses, human response is predicted. Furthermore, researchers made a progress in the field of neuroscience, where human brain cells are being used to increase the intellectual level in mice by transplanting them into the brains of newborn mice. The cells are the type of glial cells; these are basically star-shaped cells found in spinal cord and brain which provide parameter for the transmission of electrical impulses. By doing this, a significant change was observed in mouse intelligence compared to the ordinary ones. This therefore shows that humans should be ranked above mice in this case since their intelligence is being increased with the help of cells found in humans.
Intellectual Level: Dolphins
Dolphin’s intellect and behavior have been studied for many years. Studies have shown that dolphins are capable of long term memory. Jason Bruck talks about an experiment performed on dolphins in which they were moved to places time to time. It was observed that they could recognize their old mates even after several years. The experiment proved the human trait in dolphins which could hardly be seen in any other animal. Supporting the idea of Douglas Adams, who described dolphins as the second most intelligent species on Earth, only surpassed by mice in his work of science fiction. As mentioned previously, there is an association between the size of the brain and how intelligent a living organism is. Encephalization quotient (EQ) is a ratio to assess the intelligence in animals since IQ test cannot be applied to them. By comparison, dolphins’ EQ ratio is 4.2 whereas human EQ ratio is about 7.4. The larger the ratio, the higher the intelligence. According to the marine scientists , dolphin brains are the second most powerful among any other animal species. Research and observations in recent years have discovered a humanistic characteristic about dolphins that they are not only capable of learning as individuals, but those individuals can then pass their knowledge onto others. A similar characteristic is seen in the work of science fiction by Douglas Adams. The author supports his statement by mentioning that dolphins had long known about the destruction of the planet Earth and had been trying to convey their message to everyone, but most of their communications were misinterpreted as a playful behavior. This shows dolphins as smart beings who could sense what might happen soon based on the present world. Moreover, dolphins became fed up due to the misinterpretation and left the planet Earth. A human-like behavior is observed here since they show a sense of neglection from others, therefore, they quit of trying more. In the science fiction work, dolphins are usually portrayed as friendly, smart and caring creatures that attracts others towards them. This could be seen in the Dolphin Island by Arthur C. Clarke. In the novel, one of the characters, name Johnny is rescued and cared by dolphins. Portraying the emotional intelligence and behavioral characteristics of dolphins that are more human-like. The author shows that dolphins are smart enough to sense trouble and give a positive reaction to it. They also appear to communicate effectively with each other as well as Johnny, hence emphasizing more on their intelligence. Similarly, in the real world, recent research suggests that dolphins possess higher communication skills. They use signature gestures to communicate; capable of receiving twenty times the amount of information than humans can with our hearing. Additionally, they show a sense of caring for one another and protect their young ones which suggests they have a high emotional intelligence too.
Intellectual Level: Humans
Douglas Adams ranked human intelligence as third after mice and dolphins. For many years, humans have considered themselves to be the most superior than all other species. Even after the Darwin theory that animals are not far different from humans, the belief continued. Humans believe, since they fulfil all the three aspects of being intelligent i.e. ability for reasoning, problem solving and learning, better than all other species, they are the most intelligent among all. They thought the evidence was obvious and irrefutable; we’re creative, we discover and think conceptually. We can speak different languages and tackle difficult ideas. Additionally, we know how to build stuff to make our living more luxurious. A similar ignorance is mentioned by Douglas Adams in his book. However, it is equally true that other species can do things that we can’t. For instance, we can’t jump 1,000 feet but fleas can. We can’t hear tones with a frequency up to 160 Hz or higher. Dolphins and mice can. We can’t run as fast as cheetahs, lift weights 20,000 times heavier than we are like ants nor we could see in the dark like bats. So, is it true that other animals could be more intelligent than humans but in a different manner that humans haven’t understood yet or might be not capable of understanding? In the book The Dynamic Humans, it is argued by a group of researchers from University of Adelaide that humans are not necessarily be superior than other animals in the animal kingdom. According to Dr. Arthur Saniotis, co-author of the book, the same idea has been carried along the past thousands of years that humans are exceptional beings and are the smartest in animal kingdom. They might not be the smartest. Scientists have developed IQ test and other intelligence measuring tests which make us better from other animals in intelligence. However, these tests may not be accurate. Dr. Arthur Santiotis mentioned in his research that humans measure their intelligence based on their language and technology. Which does not seem to be accurate taking it into account on a bigger scale. Suppose, if the intelligence was measured in terms of other skills, such as hearing power, would we be the smartest organisms then?
Conclusion
It appears probable that evolution has developed the intelligence of all species according to their living environments. For example, dolphins are capable of hearing sounds with a frequency up to 160 Hz where as humans can only hear up to 20 Hz. This is because they live under water and since they communicate with each other they require that much of hearing range where as humans don’t. The main concern here is that animal intelligence is measured according to human intelligence, thus, we may never know exactly how smart they are. Douglas Adams ranking might be true.
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