# Nonhuman Intelligence **Domain:** Intelligence / Animal Cognition / Extraterrestrial Life / Machine Intelligence **Doc Type:** Concept Node **Maturity:** Developing **Related:** [[SETI Institute]], [[Jane Goodall Institute]], [[Artificial Intelligence]], [[Rights]] --- ## Definition **Nonhuman intelligence** includes forms of cognition and adaptive agency not instantiated by a living human being, including animal cognition, possible extraterrestrial intelligence and machine intelligence. ## Rights Context The category is deliberately plural. Different beings may warrant different protections because of sentience, agency, social relation or vulnerability; nonhuman status cannot by itself establish either personhood or disposability. ## Backlinks [[SETI Institute]] · [[Jane Goodall Institute]] · [[Rights]] ## Simple Reminders, Quotations, and Thoughts > "People assume that AI or machines that think will have intelligence that is alien to our own, but that's not possible." > **— Douglas Coupland**, *2015, Edge annual question “What Do You Think About Machines That Think?”* [[reminders/Machine Succession/Artificial Intelligence Cannot Be Alien to Human Intelligence by Douglas Coupland|Artificial Intelligence Cannot Be Alien to Human Intelligence by Douglas Coupland]] > "What do I think about machines that think? Well, of course it depends on who that person is." > **— Robert Sapolsky**, *2015, Edge annual question “What Do You Think About Machines That Think?”* [[reminders/Machine Succession/It Depends on Who the Thinking Machine Is by Robert Sapolsky|It Depends on Who the Thinking Machine Is by Robert Sapolsky]] > "A common theme in recent writings about machine intelligence is that the best new learning machines will constitute rather alien forms of intelligence." > **— Andy Clark**, *2015, Edge annual question “What Do You Think About Machines That Think?”* [[reminders/Information/Learning Machines May Develop Alien Intelligence by Andy Clark|Learning Machines May Develop Alien Intelligence by Andy Clark]] > "My experience as a clinical neurologist makes me partial to believing that we will be unable to read machines' thoughts, but also they will be incapable of reading ours." > **— Gerald Smallberg**, *2015, Edge annual question “What Do You Think About Machines That Think?”* [[reminders/Consciousness/Machines May Never Read Human Thoughts by Gerald Smallberg|Machines May Never Read Human Thoughts by Gerald Smallberg]] > "We can respond similarly to our future technological creations, these thinking machines we might not fully understand. Rather than fear or worry, we should have naches from them." > **— Samuel Arbesman**, *2015, Edge annual question “What Do You Think About Machines That Think?”* [[reminders/Risk Debate/We Should Take Pride in Alien Machine Intelligence by Samuel Arbesman|We Should Take Pride in Alien Machine Intelligence by Samuel Arbesman]] > “Can we design a common test to assess machine, animal and human intelligence?” > **— Steve Fuller**, *2018 Edge Annual Question, question* [[reminders/Consciousness/Can One Test Measure Human Animal and Machine Intelligence by Steve Fuller|Can One Test Measure Human Animal and Machine Intelligence by Steve Fuller]] > “What cognitive capacities make humans so damn weird relative to all the other animals on the planet?” > **— Laurie R. Santos**, *2018 Edge Annual Question, question* [[reminders/Consciousness/What Makes Human Cognition So Different From Other Animals by Laurie R. Santos|What Makes Human Cognition So Different From Other Animals by Laurie R. Santos]] > “When in the evolution of animal life did the capacity to experience love for another being first emerge?” > **— Abigail Marsh**, *2018 Edge Annual Question, question* [[reminders/Consciousness/When Did Animal Life First Become Capable of Love by Abigail Marsh|When Did Animal Life First Become Capable of Love by Abigail Marsh]] > “Is our continued coexistence with the other big mammals essential to furthering our understanding of human cognition?” > **— John W. Krakauer**, *2018 Edge Annual Question, question* [[reminders/Human Animality/Do Other Mammals Help Us Understand Human Cognition by John W. Krakauer|Do Other Mammals Help Us Understand Human Cognition by John W. Krakauer]] > “What would the mind of a child raised in total isolation of other animals be like?” > **— Bruce Hood**, *2018 Edge Annual Question, question* [[reminders/Human Animality/What Would a Childhood Without Other Animals Do to the Mind by Bruce Hood|What Would a Childhood Without Other Animals Do to the Mind by Bruce Hood]] > “Chimpanzees are capable of killing without weapons, just as humans are, but they are incapable of capital punishment. What capital punishment needs is the ability to make a plan and to coordinate that plan.” > **— Richard Wrangham**, *How violence pointed to virtue, Harvard faculty interview* [[reminders/Human Animality/Chimpanzees Can Kill but Cannot Plan Capital Punishment by Richard Wrangham|Chimpanzees Can Kill but Cannot Plan Capital Punishment by Richard Wrangham]] > “[Other animals’] brains are basically the same as ours. The same hormones that create mood and motivation in us are in those brains as well.” > **— Carl Safina**, *Beyond Words: Carl Safina, Rutgers faculty interview* [[reminders/Human Animality/Other Animals Share Our Biology of Mood by Carl Safina|Other Animals Share Our Biology of Mood by Carl Safina]] > “If an animal is acting fearful, your best guess is that it feels afraid. If it’s playing with its babies, it’s having fun. That’s a really good first guess. For the most part, it gets you the right answer right away. Then if you keep watching, you have a better chance of confirming that answer or realizing you might have been mistaken.” > **— Carl Safina**, *Beyond Words: Carl Safina, Rutgers faculty interview* [[reminders/Human Animality/Watch Animals Before Dismissing Their Feelings by Carl Safina|Watch Animals Before Dismissing Their Feelings by Carl Safina]] > “You know, our gestures, when we communicate nonverbally, are virtually the same as the chimpanzees.” > **— Jane Goodall**, *What It Means to Be Human, full interview transcript* [[reminders/Human Animality/Human and Chimpanzee Gestures Are Remarkably Alike by Jane Goodall|Human and Chimpanzee Gestures Are Remarkably Alike by Jane Goodall]] ## Relationships - **Edge source and reminder relationship:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] records the original Edge Annual Question responses; the source-checked quotations below route to their individual reminders and back to this topic.