Adam Hart-Davies - A Curiously Narrow-Minded Scientist

This post is copied and pasted from an old blog I started that never got underway, so apologies if it seems out of date. The original date of writing was 8 Aug 2007:

Whilst plugging his latest programme to Richard and Judy on Channel 4 just last week, the respected scientist Adam Hart-Davis made a throwaway comment that left me quite literally scathing. He was discussing the search for life on other planets, during which he displayed his narrow-mindedness, claiming that 'humans are the only intelligent form of life on this planet...you don't see whales walking around with mobile phones.'

To imply that for a creature to be intelligent it must have technology is absolutely absurd, and is typical of the way in which we humans tend to ascribe superiority to ourselves, just because we are more 'advanced.' Intelligence comes not just from knowledge or gadgets, but from the way in which we relate to our environment and how we survive. A shark may be deemed more intelligent than a human for its ability to sense movement from miles and miles away; we have no such acute senses. The same could be said for various other species, that perform functions we could never dream of doing: flying, seeing ultraviolet light, and so on and so forth.

In fact, I believe that humans are perhaps some of the least intelligent creatures that have evolved on this planet. We regularly partake in prejudice of all kinds, be it due to race, gender, culture or, (most prevalently) species. We believe in 'Gods' and the word of Scripture, simply because such doctrines have been engrained into our brains since youth, and we use such beliefs to declare war, act violently, discriminate against others and generally destruct all around us. We act as though everything on Earth is here for our benefit, and we can use it at our whim, regardless of the implications.

No, a whale does not use a mobile phone, nor does it vote, nor does it use make-up. It does not need to (and neither, arguably, do we), and it would be unfairly anthropomorphic of us to judge another species' intelligence to our own paltry standards.