Chimps have an average IQ around 40. I know IQ isn't fully equivalent to intelligence, but the average human is about 2.5 times as smart as the average chimp. Chimp IQs over 70 have been recorded. The difference is very significant, but not astronomical. Interestingly, chimps nurtured by humans since infancy have significantly higher IQs than less-domesticated chimps.
As apophenia points out, our instinctive teaching of our young is highly significant and is a large part of the difference between us being the most clever animal and being the most clever animal that builds supercomputers. Go back 40,000 years and the relative technological achievements of chimps and humans would not be in nearly such high contrast.
We're much smarter than chimps, but not so much smarter that it's evolutionarily mysterious, and our technological achievements are dependent on knowledge and infrastructure developed over our lifetime as a species through our cultures, not a function of sheer intelligence. If we weren't around and chimps were, chimps would the cleverest animal. We are around, and there's nothing on earth that we know runs a higher IQ, so it's us. At least for a few more years.
As apophenia points out, our instinctive teaching of our young is highly significant and is a large part of the difference between us being the most clever animal and being the most clever animal that builds supercomputers. Go back 40,000 years and the relative technological achievements of chimps and humans would not be in nearly such high contrast.
We're much smarter than chimps, but not so much smarter that it's evolutionarily mysterious, and our technological achievements are dependent on knowledge and infrastructure developed over our lifetime as a species through our cultures, not a function of sheer intelligence. If we weren't around and chimps were, chimps would the cleverest animal. We are around, and there's nothing on earth that we know runs a higher IQ, so it's us. At least for a few more years.
