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While all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time

That's an extremely human centric view of what dolphins do.

We forget that for every other animal, survival is more than even a full time job and they devote every single brain cell to it every second that they're alive. Animals that waste brain power on things that don't affect survival are selected out of the ecosystem. It's why the vast majority of vertebrates only have enough brain cells for basic consciousness with limited higher level thought and the majority of invertebrates have even simpler nervous systems, it's not because they just "haven't" evolved higher intelligence, they only need that much brain to survive in their niche and any more brain cells would waste energy and make them less fit.

Even with the complex brains of dolphins, what they actually do all day is try not to starve to death, while trying not to get eaten by orcas, while trying to outcompete the other dolphin pods in the same niche. This was the same for humans for the vast majority of our species' history, and is still the case for much of the world. The ability for us Westerners to devote our entire brains to something other than not dying is an unbelievable level of privilege and we really have no right to speak ill of any other animal.

4 comments

In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
So long, and thanks for all the fish
- So sad it had to come to this
While all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time
That's an extremely human centric view of what dolphins do.
We forget that for every other animal, survival is more than even a full time job and they devote every single brain cell to it every second that they're alive. Animals that waste brain power on things that don't affect survival are selected out of the ecosystem. It's why the vast majority of vertebrates only have enough brain cells for basic consciousness with limited higher level thought and the majority of invertebrates have even simpler nervous systems, it's not because they just "haven't" evolved higher intelligence, they only need that much brain to survive in their niche and any more brain cells would waste energy and make them less fit.
Even with the complex brains of dolphins, what they actually do all day is try not to starve to death, while trying not to get eaten by orcas, while trying to outcompete the other dolphin pods in the same niche. This was the same for humans for the vast majority of our species' history, and is still the case for much of the world. The ability for us Westerners to devote our entire brains to something other than not dying is an unbelievable level of privilege and we really have no right to speak ill of any other animal.