#infrastructure. interconnectivity. and the cultural inheritance of many generations worth of knowledge

[fatal-blow]

so im reading A Brief History of Intelligence* by Max Bennett, which discusses all of the major breakthroughs throughout evolutionary history, and first of all its just extremely refreshig to have a discussion about the brain and mental abilities that is grounded in biology

but also its stuck with me deeply that one of the first things that the book establishes is that the brains of many other animals (birds, mammals, especially mammals) are really similar to our own. which is huge when the narrative around the human brain is about how much more special and weird it is compared to other mammals

like even the simplest animals share serotonin and dopamine with us! anything after the evolution of corals and jellyfishes pretty much!

and because i interact with animals more than other humans more on a daily basis, i feel like this book really lets me get to know them. i get to learn all the things i have in common with my fish, my cats, the birds outside, the squirrel who visits me, and the more i read the more i think it's such a gargantuan disservice that's been done to other animals the way we've historically judged them to be so much...less than us.

like idk. nothing has driven home for me more that humans are just another type of animal than this book, and that's saying something because i was raised on the idea that humans are animals.

*edited to the actual book name idk why i thought it was the other thing