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Comment by idk1 | Hacker News Reader

I have two cats, one is quite clever and responds to her name, dinner, hop up (for it's ok if you want to sit on my lap) and a few other things. I can ask her to get one of her toys too if she wants the play. She also very rarely meows.

The other cat is not so bright, if you ever say anything to him directly he'll only meow back and come over for a pat, that's it. It's just a back and forth screaming match if you talk to him. The chopsyest cat I've ever met. Just shouts at everyone and everything without purpose.

I think what I'm trying to say is, cats have a range of intelligence and some of them are quite good at learning names.

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I have 7 cats now and have had had 15 cats in my life. My whole extended family has always had lots of cats.

Two things stick out at me:

1) Cats really do respond to being talked to and interacted with. Cats that are talked to often get more responsive and communicative.

2) There is huge genetic IQ gaps, lol. Some cats are so smart they blow your mind, others are mouth breathers. The normal distribution is real.

This. Not limited to cats either. I've noticed the same in dogs and even some cows.

Same rules apply to humans as well. Interaction early on develops personality and intelligence varies genetically by a wide margin.

Intelligence is not well-defined even for humans, and we have little understanding of what goes on in an animal's "mind", yet people like you use terms like IQ for cats like they're established facts. For all we know, it could be that some animals/cats just don't "care" as much about interacting with humans. Just like some humans do.

I just meant general intelligence over all varies among animals. I'm not stating facts, I'm stating my observations.

Personally, it's pretty easy over time to tell the difference between apathy and intelligence when you spend a lot of time observing interactions.

"People like you" should check your tone btw.

> we have little understanding of what goes on in an animal's "mind"

Maybe you do. Behaviorism went out with disco and bell bottoms, and good riddance; more recent researchers often take an ethological approach - Goodall, not that pervo freak Skinner - and what we've learned from corvids only scratches the surface of the extent to which we're lately discovering that animals other than humans are a lot smarter than we tend to give them credit for.

The human animal, on the other hand - well, that you put quotes around "mind" in your comment earlier suffices alone to demonstrate that your confident assumption of knowing what you're talking about here lacks quite a bit for congruence with reality. Hell, I've met crows who proved to have a very accurate theory of mind for me - much more so than you here give the impression of having for them.

Not just IQ, they have full blown personalities that you could probably write Shakespeare dramas about.

I believe those go hand in hand. The smarter the animal usually the more personality they have.

Or Brodaway Musicals.

Or The Lives of the Caesars...

"There is huge genetic IQ gaps, lol. Some cats are so smart they blow your mind, others are mouth breathers. The normal distribution is real."

I'm very curious about how well someone with a "lot of experience in digital advertising" is positioned to define "genetic IQ gaps", "smart", etc. as it applies to cats & others. Perhaps instead of throwing these terms around like they're candy, you should submit your findings to an scientific journal (and get rejected :) ).

You seem to be really offended by this statement, you even went to his profile to find something to attack him?

GP isn't trying to write a paper, he's stating an observation based on his experience with the animals he's had.

Feel free to dispute the above statements with research or anecdotes, but solely insulting people and getting angry just reflects poorly on you.

I can only assume you are one of those stupid cats seeing how you handled yourself in this thread :)

This might be the worst post I’ve ever seen on HN.

No need for the condescending disrespect.

This isn’t what hackernews is about. I’m quite shocked at this post.

> The other cat is not so bright, if you ever say anything to him directly he'll only meow back and come over for a pat, that's it. It's just a back and forth screaming match if you talk to him.

More pats for less work? Sounds like the smarter one to me.

Yup, one wants to play and the other wants pets

Some are smarter than others, but I think, in terms of animal behavior or ecology, cats are basically carnivorous rabbits.

That's not to say anyone who has had a trainable cat doesn't like them - mine have their moments - but I think it's worthwhile to consider that.

In what way do you see a similarity to rabbits? I think of them as being pretty different, with cats being less social and more likely to take risks.

rabbits are just prey animals and that shows in their behavior and attitude, whereas cats do a lot of predation themselves.

However, cats are far from the top of the food chain themselves, which is reflected in a lot of their behaviors.

House cats and big cats don't behave very differently.

https://lithub.com/house-cats-and-wild-cats-arent-actually-t...

Uh, that article is not about house cats vs big cats. The still-extant ancestral species of the domestic cat, F. lybica, is a small wildcat, as were its ancestors, and as such a predator but not an apex predator. Big cats, which typically are apex predators in their respective ecosystems, are a wholly separate branch of the felid family.

Recent research showed that house cats share nearly 95 or was it 96% of their DNA with big cats

The same is true of humans and orangutans, that comparatively small percentage can clearly account for massive differences in behavior and intelligence.