Armed with 10,000 more genes than humans: Scientists hail the intelligence of the octopus

With its eight tentacles, large eyes and intelligent demeanour, it has been likened to an alien form of life. Now scientists have decoded the genome of the octopus and have discovered just how different it is to other intelligent creatures both on land and sea.The octopus may not have a backbone but when kept in captivity it is clever enough to devise ways of escaping from a fish tank. It is so intelligent that it is the only invertebrate to be given special protection under the UK law governing the licensing of animal experiments.Yet the intelligence of the octopus evolved far earlier than that of the “higher” vertebrates and its genome holds the secrets of how this happened, according to the researchers who have sequenced the entire 2.7 billion “letters” of the octopus’s genetic code – the first genome within the cephalopod group of predatory molluscs, such as the squid, cuttlefish and nautilus.





http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/armed-with-10000-more-genes-than-humans-scientists-hail-the-intelligence-of-the-octopus-10451893.html

so anyway this is basically my point in the religion thread *(thanks didge)

WE are still finding out how intelligent other life forms are on earth, we have NO FUCKING IDEA what life will be like in space or what the 'limits of life' are.

for all octopuses differences they are sill carbon based, built on the same chemicals as us, living on earth. what a creature could be like that Doesn't have those things in common with us is just incomprehensible at this point.

the idea that we can conclusively say that trees(or anything) definitively do not posses consciousness is arrogance

Nothing to do with religion.

I am just not arrogant to believe we are the only intelligence species.
Again I said there is evidence that plants may well have a conciousness and would not rule this out. That again has nothing to do with a belief in deities, just that there is other intelligent life forms. It just shows how well evolution has played a part in the life forms of all creatures.

it has to do with my religion
that we are not special
life is life
the fact the octopus exists as it does show the idea that humans are special is ridiculous.

and as soon as you admit that we are not special, the universe is not designed around us, then you admit that we would not know if there were gods or not... because humans are too small and too irrelevant in comparison to the universe...

Well that is your issue on religion.
All creatures, species, life are special, including humans. They are all connected by this planet.
Its wrong to discount humans are not special also.
So your view is wrong also, as to me all are special and play a part within this world. So to say humans are not special is utterly wrong also.


Laters

thats semantics didge...if all are special then there is no such thing as special, all you can say then is that all life is "similar". You cant even say all life is equal , since clearly it is not...

@veya

you said " and as soon as you admit that we are not special, the universe is not designed around us, then you admit that we would not know if there were gods or not... because humans are too small and too irrelevant in comparison to the universe..."

I would add ......and the idea that there is a "personal god" is equally absurd

victorismyhero wrote:thats semantics didge...if all are special then there is no such thing as special, all you can say then is that all life is "similar". You cant even say all life is equal , since clearly it is not...

@veya

you said " and as soon as you admit that we are not special, the universe is not designed around us, then you admit that we would not know if there were gods or not... because humans are too small and too irrelevant in comparison to the universe..."

I would add ......and the idea that there is a "personal god" is equally absurd

Disagree, we are all special because life is special and will be different per species.
Life is very special indeed and how we choose to spend that life is dependent on each individual, but its certainly special.

why special....?

define your understanding of special in this context

victorismyhero wrote:why special....?  

define your understanding of special in this context

Why not special?
Is not everyone special to someone?
We all are to someone and our existance in itself is special.
We certainly formed because of the right situations happenning through evolution, which to me makes for being special as without many aspects not happenning we would not exist.

mmmm....dunno if i agree with that

certainly as you say we are special to someone...

however thats a rather internalised view point

in the grand scheme of things we are just carbon based parasites with no particular purpose (as far as the universe is concerned)

yes we exist, but then so do many other forms of life.

if you want a sobering thought...life as we know it, could well be the by-product of some other purpose going on in the universe.....

so that makes us???? (hint....we spread it on fields)

victorismyhero wrote:mmmm....dunno if i agree with that

certainly as you say we are special to someone...

however thats a rather internalised view point

in the grand scheme of things we are just carbon based parasites with no particular purpose (as far as the universe is concerned)

yes we exist, but then so do many other forms of life.

if you want a sobering thought...life as we know it, could well be the by-product of some other purpose going on in the universe.....

so that makes us???? (hint....we spread it on fields)

But you are making the base point the universe to define us against being special.

Who decided this and is this the bases to actually make the comparison.

For example certain ants have some amasing qualities but compared to a Volcano, they would be nothing special.

What you are deciding is the comparative point.

The Universe may just be a part of a game and just the surroundings of the game for special effects, where it is the characters in the game that is important and special

So again who determines what we based ourselves to be special from?