Different brains, similar minds

Cognitive capacities (problem solving, causal reasoning, social intelligence) can evolve multiple times and be implemented in radically different neural architectures — small avian brains can produce primate‑like cognition. That means intelligence is a biological target independent of specific brain size or arrangement, and behavioral similarity does not imply homologous neural solutions. — This reframes debates about animal ethics, conservation priorities, and cognitive science—if minds are implementationally flexible, policy and scientific inference must stop assuming primate models are the only standard for complex intelligence.