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Dolphin Sentience?

Nobody's girl

13:15 / 23.11.04

This thread was inspired by, among other things, this recent Beeb article on altruistic dolphins protecting humans from a shark. Considering that dolphin meat has been found in shark stomachs, I think these dolphins were very brave. But were they simply protecting these humans as they would any floudering dolphin child or were they aware that they were saving non-dolphins?

A while back I read this fascinating article by John Lilly on his dolphin experiments. I'm no new-age dolphin hippy, but I'm intrigued by the possibility of another sentient species on earth (check out Koko the gorilla's website ) and along with our great ape cousins I see dolphins as another candidate.

Recent deployment of dolphins in Iraq makes me quite uncomfortable because of this uncertainty on dolphin sentience.

Any thoughts?

modern maenad

12:17 / 27.11.04

It seems to me that the crazy thing is that we ever started to think we were different - we're a great ape, apes are mammals, mammals share a whole lot of physiological characteristics, which I take to mean that our happy/angry/scared/hungry sensations are being producted via similar sets of glands, hormones, chemicals etc. Emotions etc. are complex brain-body products and I'm sure there's commonality in our experiences. Regarding the dolphins, I'm sure they can tell the difference between a human and a dolphin, and knew what they were doing - what I suppose is harder to say is WHY they were doing it.....

pornotaxi

19:37 / 30.11.04

i'm sure dolphins are very sentient. but there's a danger of anthropomorphizing. they're nothing like us.

after all, it's not unknown for gangs of teenage male dolphins to gang rape single young female dolphins - for days on end. not so cute. hmm.. well maybe some of them *are* like some of us.

they're a bit slow with the sending rockets to the moon thing though, arent they?

LykeX

21:19 / 30.11.04

I remember seeing a show some years back that discussed the attempts of training dolphins for use in military operations. Apparently it turned out harder than the trainers thought because every now and then, the dolphins would abandon their mission to go play instead.

So maybe the question isn't "are they as intelligent as us", but rather "can we ever hope to be as intelligent as them".

Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero

16:16 / 01.12.04

Onion headline:

"Dophins develop Thumbs

Humans: Oh shit"

Really, the whole moon thing is their own fault. They may have had thumbs once, based on the strangely familiar bones in their flippers. But hell, they wanted flippers instead, so they can never go to the moon for all I care.

LykeX

00:25 / 02.12.04

Reading throught my previous post, I realize that it sounds incredibly annoying. In a sort of new agey way.
I feel rather embarrased.

TeN

20:04 / 02.12.04

I think it's interesting that dolphins are the only animal on earth beside humans that have sex for pleasure.

Andek Niemand

13:38 / 03.12.04

Only species that has sex for pleasure besides humans? Hell no! Chimpanzees and especially bonobo chimps are regular sex machines, who also engage in homosexual acts. They, of course, are our closest relations in the family tree of the great apes.

modern maenad

15:41 / 03.12.04

I think it's interesting that dolphins are the only animal on earth beside humans that have sex for pleasure.

Ditto Andek Niemand - Though we cannot know for sure what pleasures other creatures are experiencing its a pretty safe bet that sharing the same equipment (i.e. male mammals have penises, females clitorises (clitori??)) results in similar sensual experiences. We (humans) really need to get over ourselves.

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