Where Would You Be Without Your Library?

Way to go fella! :)

Goats are smart.

I would like to point out a few things because was se this video was taken at where I work. No, I am not kidding.

1) That is a sheep not a goat. Why does everyone get them mixed up?
2) That is a Jacob's Sheep. These sheep are rear but were used for their wool by the native people of the southwest U.S.
3) That is a girl. All the sheep in that yeard are female. Yes, it has horns but so do female cows.
4) If you think that sheep is smart you should see goats.

Thanks for the corrections above. Yes, that's a Jacob sheep! And they're considered a rare breed (American Livestock Breeds Conservancy) But nope, this breed's wool was not used by the native people of the southwestern U.S. Another rare breed has filled that role: Navajo Churro. Jacobs were first identified in England, although no one's quite sure yet where they originated.

A number of the older types of sheep are pretty darn smart. One of the qualities that has been bred for in modern breeds is docility, which may come along with a drop in intelligence {wry grin}. Breeding of Jacobs in the British Isles has been more along "modern" lines, and American Jacobs are closer to the old style.

It's a little hard to tell, because the video is pixelated some on my machine, but that may be a Navajo Churro sheep that wanders through in the background. (The kind whose wool *is* used by native and Hispanic peoples in the Southwest.)

The sheep in the foreground is another Jacob.

One of the reasons that appears smart to us is because we aren't much different from sheep. This is the reason old parables used sheep as an analogue for humans. Sheep are myopic, only able to see a short distance in-front of them. They are strong herd animals, probably because they can't see that far. However they can see almost 180 degrees peripheral. There are two traditional ways to herd sheep; by sheep-dogs or horses (using fear) and by buckets of food (using desire). Like all animals, humans too are either driven by fear or desire (desire is king, even fleeing from fear is a form of desire to get away from a threat).

Many of us claim to be shephards using fear to herd our fellow sheep to what we think are greener pastures. But because we rely on fear we are not really that far-sighted ourselves. A good shephard recognizes the sheep are locked-in to fear and desire and choose to lead the sheep by buckets of food. In the Christian parable this refers to "spiritual food" which at first is like "milk" suckled from the teet of religion and can contain all manner of fantastical delusion, but the Bible also refers to "solid spiritual food" which is withheld from the majority of sheep because they would simply run away in fear.

So, actually, on older vending machines you can lift up the plate that covers the shoot and there is a switch. If you press the switch upwards it dispenses product. It is usually part-way up a slot on the right side, so you have to take a penny or other change and flick it up the slot. You may lose the penny but you get the product for 1c. BTW, I've only done this once to verify it and it was an arcade game. Most newer vending machines are protected by a separate plate connected to the first plat in an L-shape that blocks the slot when the dispenser shoot is open.

The sheep probably just started licking the machine and eventually flicked the switch with his tongue. After so many times she would learn how to hack the machine, but she wouldn't need much 'intelligence' to do it, just a strong desire for treats and the ability to learn from experience.

I only said goats were smart because I know goats are smart (that is: smarter than an average person might expect) because we used to actually have goats. And because the article said goats and the video said goats I completely missed that it was not actually a goat. Also the horns: while watching the video you focus on the horns and your typical domestic sheep does not have horns. I suppose my take away lesson is how amazingly easy it is to get fooled or gullibly take something for granted which should not be taken for granted.

Personally, I think human intelligence is overblown. Upon studying the functional structure of the human brain, and seeing it demonstrated that our mental lives are dependent on our physical brains, I learned what 'intelligence' is. Intelligence is the natural order, it is cause and effect woven together into one massive fabric of occurances. The natural order determines the order of my brain, which in-turn passes itself of as 'intelligent' over and against the natural. It's quite the facade.

As a matter of fact, human 'intelligence' is adopted largely from an evolving culture. Culture evolves much the same way species do. You may be familiar with Memetics which attempts to explain cultural evolution in terms paralleling genetic evolution. This is very similar to the old theory of engrams. Either way, they illustrate the point that we are not that smart. We learn from those who have learned before us. We are just instances of a long evolutionary process, and always finding ourselves on the horizon, we think we are smarter than we actually are. As a consequence we look to our past, often with disdain for our past selves. Thinking, erroneously, that we are smarter than they were.

You know, it reminds me too of that sad fact of non-conformity that non-conformists often fail to realize. They are happy to be a non-conformist so long as there are other non-conformists to conform to. And they will not be satisfied with non-conformists who don't conform to their prevailing ideal of non-conformity. Similarly, we all seem to think "free-thinking" means agreeing with us. If we were truly free to think whatever... then we wouldn't be seeking retribution from controversy the way we do. Recently, a Cop, a Politician, and a Judge, were demoted, fired and publically berated (by the public) for making the following controversial statements:

"sex was in the air" (when judging a rape case) (judge)

"for your protection, and I probably shouldn't say this, don't dress like 'sluts'" (cop giving rape-prevention lecture at York University)

"there is sexual offense, and there is 'sexual offense'. Recently a 15 year old boy... used an object... on a girl who was passed out from partying. We shouldn't send him to jail for 3 years." (paraphrased, Politician)

All of these me were either demoted and/or berated publically. In-fact, they kick-started Slutwalk which infected Toronto and London, Ontario and plans to spring up elsewhere. In retaliation to Slutwalk another feminist group organized the Anti-slutwalk. Everyone over-lookng the fact that criminology reports indicate a strong correlation between a woman's attire and misperception of sexual intent which has been demonstrated to be a predictor of rape. The cop knows it, the judge knows it, and the politician suspects it, but society won't have it. Free-thinkers we are not.