[FORUM] Are humans and animals on a shared continuum of intelligence?

[rfmcdonald]

"Deep Space Nine Lives" a photo by randyfmcdonald on Flickr.

The 7 February 2011 installment of American cartoonist Hilary Price's strip Rhymes With Orange was good--thanks, gmul295!--combining humour with intelligence.

"Deep Space Nine Lives" compared the cat carrier to the Bajoran wormhole of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, both places where ordinary beings can find themselves mysteriously trapped in only to be released in a far-removed area of the universe. Humans (and comparable entities) in the Star Trek continuity can only begin to understand the Bajoran wormhole in terms of advanced physics and a verifiable theology (sometimes at the same time, often not). Is that so far removed from the way that a cat might understand a cat carrier, as an enclosed space that one is put into, that is transported at a certain speed for an extended period of time, only to be deposited elsewhere? I'd ask Shakespeare, but as he's not a language-user the effort would be--among other things--foolish.

What extent of congruity between human and non-human mental processes do you assume exist? Does it exist? Is there or is there not a continuum of intelligence in the animal kingdom connecting humans with different species of animals to varying degrees, or do you think--as Justin E.H. Smith seems to suspect--that there are fundamental discontinuities? In other words, does this installment of Rhymes With Orange make any sense in reality or can it be nothing but conceit?

Discuss.