Animal intelligence is not a matter of debate. What is surprising and shocking is that, apparently, a lot of people once thought they are just machines. — tim wood
Chemotaxis is the directed motion of an organism toward environmental conditions it deems attractive and/or away from surroundings it finds repellent. Movement of flagellated bacteria such as Escherichia coli can be characterized as a sequence of smooth-swimming runs punctuated by intermittent tumbles. Tumbles last only a fraction of a second, which is sufficient to effectively randomize the direction of the next run. Runs tend to be variable in length extending from a fraction of a second to several minutes.
As E. coli cells are only a few microns long, they behave essentially as point sensors, unable to measure gradients by comparing head-to-tail concentration differences. Instead, they possess a kind of memory that allows them to compare current and past chemical environments. The probability that a smooth swimming E. coli cell will stop its run and tumble is dictated by the chemistry of its immediate surroundings compared to the chemistry it encountered a few seconds previously. — https://www.cell.com/current-biology/comments/S0960-9822(02)01424-0
they are unable to escape from their instinctive patterns in the way we can. — Daemon
There is some evidence that the size of the average Sapiens brain has actually decreased since the age of foraging. surviving in that era required superb mental abilities from everyone. when agriculture and industry came along people could increasingly rely on the skills of others for survival, and new 'niches for imbeciles' were opened up. you could survive and pass your unremarkable genes to the next generation by working as a water carrier or an assembly-line worker. — Yuval Noah Harari (Sapiens)
A sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. — Arthur C. Clarke
A sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from nature. — Some Guy
"Intelligence" primarily denotes compliance with a worldview. — frank
You think we make aircraft using our instinct? — Daemon
Did you make this? It's great! — Nummereen
If our instinct is to invent, which it apparently is, then yes. — James Riley
Watch and be amazed! Niel deGrasse Tyson's take on animal and human intelligence. — TheMadFool
I wonder what motivates you to deny this. — Daemon
Careful you don't lose your troglodyte mask else you be invited to and permitted into where you don't want to go - among polite company for tea! . — tim wood
I wonder what motivates you to deny this. — Daemon
Mama's teeth on the neck if they don't. But that also passes for love.I wonder if animals try to fit in? :grin: — James Riley
Sex, war, exceeding carrying capacity, all the things animals do, the list goes on. I look around at people and I see animals. No better, but maybe a little worse. In fact, the only worthwhile thing we've ever brought to the table is art. Everything else is about us. No giving, just taking. — James Riley
But now you are moralising. You are using a mental capacity that (some?) other animals don't have. Fish can't look around at other animals and ascribe moral properties to them in the way you are. — Daemon
We can overcome our instincts to the extent that we agree to limit the number of children we have, to avoid overpopulation, — Daemon
Art is all about us! — Daemon
And so I think it's time for a total reconfiguration of your current world view. — Daemon
I think that goes to half of what I was saying. The other half is looking "the other direction" and investigating what "they" know that we don't know. We've lost a metric shit ton of institutional knowledge that indigenous people had of mineral, plants, animals, weather. So how much more do those entities themselves have that the indigenous people learned from in the first place? Dissecting an animal in a lab is only a part of it's story. Studying it in the wild is also merely a part, especially if we come to the study with our own inherent limitations. Becoming that animal is yet another step (hunting) but still only a part.
If the yogi on the mountain top doesn't come down and share the secret of life, it might be for the same reason animals don't spend a lot of time reaching out to us.
Anyway, we come to the table with our own limitations. We are interesting, but we're not all that and a bag of chips — James Riley
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