Useful languages can succinctly distinguish things which are qualitatively quite different. Describing everything in the world as "intelligent" sounds kinda cool and Zen, and may reflect some peoples' worldviews - but it also make "intelligent" pretty useless as an adjective.
Intelligence is not well defined enough for a succinct distinguishment. At least, not colloquially.
But also we're in a context where acknowledging the intelligence of other life forms is pretty radical so distinguishing them as 'lesser' than human would be precisely opposite of the point. The baseline world view is that human intelligence is magically different than other animal intelligences.
HarHarVeryFunny|1 year ago
It's also seems odd to call it "baffling" when they 100% understand how it works!
bell-cot|1 year ago
burnished|1 year ago
But also we're in a context where acknowledging the intelligence of other life forms is pretty radical so distinguishing them as 'lesser' than human would be precisely opposite of the point. The baseline world view is that human intelligence is magically different than other animal intelligences.
whelp_24|1 year ago