I don’t find the facts about number of neurons very suggestive of humans not being the most intelligent. On the contrary, when I look at the lists, it reinforces the idea that humans are smartest individually.
For total neuron count, only one animal beats humans: the African elephant, with 50% more, and humans have more than 2x the next highest (which is the Gorilla). So if we think the total neuron count numbers tell us how smart an animal is, then either humans or elephants are at the top.
For forebrain neurons, the top 10 are 8 kinds of whale, with humans at number 3 and gorillas at number 10.
Notably, humans and gorillas are the only animals in the top 10 on both lists, with humans handily beating gorillas in both cases. And all the animals which beat humans having much higher body mass.
I think if you were an alien who thought neurons were important for intelligence, and saw the lists above, but didn’t know anything else about the species, you’d probably have most of your probability mass on either elephants, primates, or whales being the smartest. Once you saw human behavior you’d update to most of the mass being on humans at the top.
And similarly, if you already had as one of your leading hypotheses that humans were smartest, based on their behavior, and also that neurons were important, then I’d think seeing humans so high on the lists above would tend to confirm the humans-are-smartest hypothesis, rather than disconfirm it.
I don’t find the facts about number of neurons very suggestive of humans not being the most intelligent. On the contrary, when I look at the lists, it reinforces the idea that humans are smartest individually.
For total neuron count, only one animal beats humans: the African elephant, with 50% more, and humans have more than 2x the next highest (which is the Gorilla). So if we think the total neuron count numbers tell us how smart an animal is, then either humans or elephants are at the top.
For forebrain neurons, the top 10 are 8 kinds of whale, with humans at number 3 and gorillas at number 10.
Notably, humans and gorillas are the only animals in the top 10 on both lists, with humans handily beating gorillas in both cases. And all the animals which beat humans having much higher body mass.
I think if you were an alien who thought neurons were important for intelligence, and saw the lists above, but didn’t know anything else about the species, you’d probably have most of your probability mass on either elephants, primates, or whales being the smartest. Once you saw human behavior you’d update to most of the mass being on humans at the top.
And similarly, if you already had as one of your leading hypotheses that humans were smartest, based on their behavior, and also that neurons were important, then I’d think seeing humans so high on the lists above would tend to confirm the humans-are-smartest hypothesis, rather than disconfirm it.
It’s worth noting that I have little reason to believe that the Wikipedia list is comprehensive.