I just want to pick you peoples brains at this point.
- Humans have had internet for less than 100 years, whales have had sonar and whale song for millions of years, allowing communication and thought sharing over spaces humans weren't capable of.
- So then, were whales smarter than humans up until the moment we gained internet?
- Internet can easily be taken away from you leaving you weak and helpless, whales can't be separated from their internet.
Human survival strategy is very min/max glass cannon right now - we are dependent on complex, unsustainable, rapidly degrading systems for survival yet feel superior to other animals for those very same systems. Seems profoundly dumb to me in a way we fail to see because we are so obsessed with our intellect.
As I said in another comment, maybe it can be said 'we are most intellectual' species but its in a kind of rain man way where we lose other necessary wisdom about how to survive long term on the planet.