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by shermantanktop 256 days ago
Given that the future human is different than you are today, they could ask you the same questions. How does it FEEL for you to communicate worldwide with an HN post, but not yet have the ability to (insert advanced capability here).

Every one of our evolutionary ancestors was the best human yet, just like we are.
1 comments
Razengan 256 days ago
> Given that the future human is different than you are today, they could ask you the same questions. How does it FEEL for you to communicate worldwide..

No no no, I don't mean going from already intelligent/sentient/sapient to MORE intelligent….

I mean, going from the levels of intelligence/awareness we see in insects → fish → chickens and cattle → monkeys/apes → what we consider "actual" intelligence as seen in humans.

Evolution of anything is obviously not some simple boolean switch: It's not like one day you're a full fish and the next day you give birth to an amphibian with legs.

But how would the gradual evolution of intelligence look and feel like?

Going from what we consider animals to be, to having awareness and introspective thoughts and future planning?

Is it like, do you have just 1 thought per day at first,

or can only count up to 3 for a few thousand years,

only plan for up to 1 day ahead, and remember that plan for only a few hours…

And when do all the clearly self-destructive things kick in, that we Modern Humans™ do that obviously harm individuals and the species? :)

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shermantanktop 256 days ago
I guess I see it as a continuum. My cats are clearly not as smart as a human, but they remember and they have independent thoughts. Presumably they wouldn’t feel inadequate compared to a human, since they get everything they could possibly want and we do the work. But it’s highly unlikely that they are smart enough to have that self-reflective thought.

Humans have the gift of understanding, but our lives are filled with things we either don’t really understand or that we have an illusion of understanding. Of course, we wonder “why does evil exist?” whereas cats wonder “when is dinnertime?”

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