本文探讨了逆戟鲸（虎鲸）的智力水平，尤其关注其大脑皮层神经元数量。研究表明，逆戟鲸大脑皮层的神经元数量是人类的两倍多，这引发了关于其智力是否可能超越人类的讨论。文章指出，逆戟鲸不仅大脑较大，而且褶皱更深，这可能与其高智力相关。此外，文章还探讨了社会性在物种智力进化中的作用，认为逆戟鲸可能与人类一样，因社会性而进化出高智力，但由于缺乏双手和陆地环境，其科技发展受到限制。文章最后呼吁更多研究和证据来进一步探究逆戟鲸的智力潜力。

🐳 **逆戟鲸大脑皮层神经元数量是人类的两倍多：**研究发现，逆戟鲸大脑皮层拥有比人类多 2.05 倍的神经元，这表明其潜在的认知能力可能远超人类。

🧠 **逆戟鲸大脑结构独特：**除了神经元数量多之外，逆戟鲸的大脑也更加复杂，褶皱更深，这可能与其高级认知功能相关。

🤝 **社会性可能是智力进化的驱动力：**文章推测，逆戟鲸与人类一样，其高智力可能是由于社会性选择压力导致的，但由于环境限制，其科技发展水平较低。

🤔 **逆戟鲸的智力潜力值得进一步探索：**文章认为，如果给予逆戟鲸与人类同等水平的训练和教育，其在抽象问题解决方面的能力可能远超人类，这需要更多研究和证据来证实。

🌊 **逆戟鲸可能在其他方面也具有超乎寻常的能力：**由于逆戟鲸在水下生活，其感知和适应环境的能力可能也远超人类，值得进一步研究。

Published on November 4, 2024 11:29 PM GMT

(Btw everything I write here about orcas also applies to a slightly lesser extent to pilot whales (especially long finned ones)^[1].)

(I'm very very far from an orca expert - basically everything I know about them I learned today.)

I always thought that bigger animals might have bigger brains than humans but not actually more neurons in their neocortex (like elephants) and that number of neurons in the neocortex or prefrontal cortex might be a good inter-species indicator of intelligence for mammalian brains.^[2] Yesterday I discovered that orcas actually have 2.05 times as many neurons in their neocortex^[3] than humans from this wikipedia list. Interestingly though, given my pretty bad model of how intelligent some species are, the "number of neurons in neocortex" still seems like a proxy that doesn't perform too badly on the wikipedia list.

Orca brains are not just larger but also more strongly folded.

Orcas are generally regarded as one of the smartest animal species, sometimes as the smartest, but I'm wondering whether they might actually be smarter than humans -- in the sense that they could be superhuman at abstract problem solving if given comparable amounts of training as humans.

Another phrasing to clarify what I mean by "could trained to be smarter": Average orcas significantly (possibly vastly) outperforming average (or even all) humans at solving scientific problems, if we enabled them to use computers through BCI and educated them from childhood like (gifted?) human children.^[4]

I would explain the evidence and considerations here in more detail but luckily someone else already wrote the post I wanted to write on reddit, only a lot better than I could've. I highly recommend checking this out (5min read): https://www.reddit.com/r/biology/comments/16y81ct/the_case_for_whales_actually_matching_or_even/

One more thing that feels worth adding:

Orcas are very social animals.^[5] It's plausible to me that what caused humans to become this intelligent were social dynamics selecting for intelligence^[6], and that orcas might've fallen into a similar attractor, and while humans took off technologically once they were smart enough to invent writing, agriculture, money and science, orcas were stuck without hands in water and just continued being selected for higher intelligence without taking off technologically.

I'd be interested in more thoughts and evidence, so please feel free to write an answer even if you don't have an answer but only one more interesting piece of evidence or consideration to contribute.

1. ^{^}

   Also possible there are more animals/dolphins/whales for which this applies. We often don't have good estimates on how many neurons are in a neocortex of some animal.

2. ^{^}

   It could be that animals with larger bodies need more neurons to be similarly intelligent as smaller animals (e.g. for body control), but I think this effect is relatively slight.

3. ^{^}

   I didn't quickly find something on what share of the orca brain is prefrontal cortex.

4. ^{^}

   Btw I could imagine that even if they were able to do so they might not be motivated for it because maybe evolution had longer time to more precisely align them to do what's reproductively useful in their natural environment or sth.

5. ^{^}

   Btw here's a reddit comment (from a different thread than the main one I linked) linking to 3 references that seem relevant, though I didn't check them: https://www.reddit.com/r/orcas/comments/18yu41m/comment/lriv011/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

6. ^{^}

   e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machiavellian_intelligence_hypothesis

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