Episode #23 – “Monkeying Around”

“If an animal does something, we call it instinct; if we do the same thing for the same reason, we call it intelligence.”

— Will Cuppy, literary critic

Date Published

15/09/2021

Main Topic

Animal Intelligence

Length

1hr 34min

In this episode of Druid’s Exchange podcast, this pair of advanced talking monkeys enter into a topic on ‘animal intelligence’. Starting off, how do us humans define intelligence and how do we compare to the rest of the animal kingdom? Between psychological and scientific based hypotheses from Dr. Howard Gardner and his ‘multiple (8) intelligences’ to Dr. Rupert Sheldrake a Biochemist from Britain and his hypothesis known as ‘Morphogenic Resonance’, it appears no intelligent human has yet come to explain the peculiarities of intelligence and the complexity of animal conscious thought and behaviour, and that’s what is so intriguing and elusive about such a conversation.

Listeners will be treated to fascinating discussions about the crazy abilities of the Octopus and the mad and wonderful life of Raccoons. The more the episode goes on, it seems like humans drop further down the ladder of impressive animal traits when compared to most highly specialised critters. This feeds all the way into the fascinating subject of ‘swarm (group) intelligence’ as seen in shoaling fish, flocking birds, stampeding Bison or complexity of an ant colony. The awareness, kinesthetic and sometimes telepathic nature of events in the animal world like these do little more than astound you, and then some. We hope you enjoy this episode and it’s a chance to put your Vagus nerves to the test.