will animals ever be better than humans?

Question: will animals ever be better than humans?
- Keywords:
  animal,
  evolution,
  humans
Asked by phobot to David, Helen, Ian, rhysphillips, Sarah on 23 Jun 2011.
- David Corne answered on 14 Jun 2011:
  
  Define “better”! In many things, animals are clearly better than us. Gorillas are stronger, cheetahs are faster, penguins are better swimmers, koalas are better at climbing trees, spiders are better at catching flies, eagles have better eyesight, bats have better hearing, mice are better at squeaking, wolves are better at hunting, and so on. We’re quite pathetic really. Regarding ‘intelligence’, it seems fair to say we have more of that than any other species, but even intelligence is difficult to define – maybe cats are more intelligent in a way, because they have clearly figured out how to get all the food, drink, warmth and shelter they need just by laying on their backs and purring. But, considering the sort of intelligence you need to science or engineering, humans will probably stay ahead of animals. However, I think that we won’t stay ahead of computers.
- Ian van der Linde answered on 14 Jun 2011:
  
  I agree with David – animals are better at many things compared to humans. If we’re thinking in terms of intelligence, then I think if a disease or other disaster killed off all the humans, it is likely that over tens of millions of years, some other animal would evolve to be just as intelligent as humans are now.
- Rhys Phillips answered on 14 Jun 2011:
  
  What do you mean by better? They are already better than us in same ways – humans would make rubbish pets for a start!
- Helen Fletcher answered on 23 Jun 2011:
  
  Most things are better than humans in at least one respect, I certainly wouldn’t win a swimming contest against a great white shark