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I think it's useful to think about evolutionary pressures forcing species to be "smart". Brain is an incredibly expensive organ, so it better be more useful tha

I think it's useful to think about evolutionary pressures forcing species to be "smart". Brain is an incredibly expensive organ, so it better be more useful than its energy consumption. We don't even quite know why primates have larger brains; we have some theories such as primates, being arboreal, might have evolved to process snakes and spiders visually (this also explains why they have poor olfaction compared to other mammals) [1]. Afaik, and please prove me wrong, we have fewer evidence why great apes have even larger brains and humans have even even larger brains. Might be better communication, group hunting, problem solving (using tools), caring for babies better, or something else, or a combination. It's interesting to think these questions with respect to pigs, octopi, dolphins, cats, dogs etc... Every mammal comes with their own supercomputer pattern matcher that is neocortex, and it's interesting to think that earlier mammals needed more computational power to survive than other animals. [1]: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2013/10/did-snakes-help-build-primate-brain http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2013/10/did-snakes-help-build...

kkylin 8y ago
What's especially interesting about octopus is that while they do communicate with each other, they aren't social in the way we are AFAIK. And, as discussed in the article, relatively short timespans (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Pacific_octopus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Pacific_octopus), and parents do not raise their young the way we do.
- labster 8y ago
  Octopi are apparently a lot more social while high on MDMA: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/09/20/648788149/octopuses-get-strangely-cuddly-on-the-mood-drug-ecstasy https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/09/20/6487881...
  - hfdgiutdryg 8y ago
    I don't know why you're getting down voted. It's somewhat shocking to me that MDMA would have any kind of even slightly similar effect on such a wildly different animal.
    - cc-d 8y ago
      Serotonin as a biological utility has been around since the beginning of multi-cellular life, maybe even sooner! We organisms tend to share many of the same neurotransmitters. It's always pretty cool to observe similar pharmacological effects to those which humans experience as a result of a certain drug, and then watching a lobster react in a similar way!
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
- tejtm 8y ago
  their lifespans don't overlap with their offspring's very much
reubenswartz 8y ago
When natural selection doesn’t explain an expensive trait, chances are sexual selection is at work. Social creatures often have bigger brains, but my guess would be sexual selection, mixed with some other traits that made it feasible to fuel such a hungry organ, are behind our inordinately large heads. :)
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  > When natural selection doesn’t explain an expensive trait, chances are sexual selection is at work. Sexual selection is an element of natural selection (which is about fitness measured by ability to have offspring that reproduce), so if it is at work, natural selection does, in fact, explain the trait.

kkylin 8y ago

What's especially interesting about octopus is that while they do communicate with each other, they aren't social in the way we are AFAIK. And, as discussed in the article, relatively short timespans (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Pacific_octopus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Pacific_octopus), and parents do not raise their young the way we do.

labster 8y ago
Octopi are apparently a lot more social while high on MDMA: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/09/20/648788149/octopuses-get-strangely-cuddly-on-the-mood-drug-ecstasy https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/09/20/6487881...
- hfdgiutdryg 8y ago
  I don't know why you're getting down voted. It's somewhat shocking to me that MDMA would have any kind of even slightly similar effect on such a wildly different animal.
  - cc-d 8y ago
    Serotonin as a biological utility has been around since the beginning of multi-cellular life, maybe even sooner! We organisms tend to share many of the same neurotransmitters. It's always pretty cool to observe similar pharmacological effects to those which humans experience as a result of a certain drug, and then watching a lobster react in a similar way!
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
tejtm 8y ago
their lifespans don't overlap with their offspring's very much

reubenswartz 8y ago

When natural selection doesn’t explain an expensive trait, chances are sexual selection is at work. Social creatures often have bigger brains, but my guess would be sexual selection, mixed with some other traits that made it feasible to fuel such a hungry organ, are behind our inordinately large heads. :)

dragonwriter 8y ago
> When natural selection doesn’t explain an expensive trait, chances are sexual selection is at work. Sexual selection is an element of natural selection (which is about fitness measured by ability to have offspring that reproduce), so if it is at work, natural selection does, in fact, explain the trait.