# Why Are Humans Smarter Than Other Animals by Alun Anderson > “Artificial intelligence researchers came along later but they too could not easily part from medieval thinking. The most important problems to tackle were agreed to be those that represented our "highest" abilities. Solve them and everything else would be easy. As a result, we have ended up with computer programs that can play chess as well as a grandmaster. But unfortunately we have none that can make a robot walk as well as a 2-year old, yet alone run like a cat. The really hard problems turn out to be those that we share with "lower" animals.” > **— Alun Anderson**, *2001, Edge Annual Question, “What Questions Have Disappeared?”* ## Sources and Context - **Direct Edge response and surrounding essay:** [Why are humans smarter than other animals?](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/12021) — Edge published this exact passage in its 2001 Annual Question collection, *WHAT QUESTIONS HAVE DISAPPEARED?*. The response page preserves the surrounding argument and qualifications. - **Complete local collection index:** [[research/Edge 2001 Full Quotation Curation - Disappeared Questions|Edge 2001 Full Quotation Curation - Disappeared Questions]] — retained source-first record for the complete response cohort and this passage's promotion status. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - **Article:** [[articles/Modern Artificial Intelligence in the 1970s|AI in the 1970s]] - **Article:** [[articles/Christopher Nolan's Odyssey at the Threshold of Machine Succession|Nolan's Odyssey]] - **Article:** [[articles/Cyber-Physical Lessons from Imperial Beekeeping|Cyber-Physical Beekeeping]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Artificial Intelligence|Artificial Intelligence]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Artificial Intelligence|Artificial Intelligence]] - [[wiki/human-machine interaction|human-machine interaction]] - [[wiki/Cybernetic Control|Cybernetic Control]] - [[wiki/Technological Evolution|Technological Evolution]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “Artificial intelligence researchers came along later but they too could not easily part from medieval thinking. The most important problems to tackle were agreed to be those that represented our "highest" abilities. Solve them and everything else would be easy. As a result, we have ended up with computer programs that can play chess as well as a grandmaster. But unfortunately we have none that can make a robot walk as well as a 2-year old, yet alone run like a cat. The really hard problems turn out to be those that we share with "lower" animals.” — Alun Anderson, 2001, Edge Annual Question, “What Questions Have Disappeared?” https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-alun-anderson-humans-smarter-other-animals ```