3 ms·
I wonder if this is an instinctual mode of motion or if the snake just has a lot of degrees of freedom and is smart enough to figure out what to do on the fly.
by im3w1l 6y ago
I wonder if this is an instinctual mode of motion or if the snake just has a lot of degrees of freedom and is smart enough to figure out what to do on the fly. I guess crossing-over and tying itself into a knot wouldn't be trivial to figure out.
- stareatgoats 6y ago> or I wonder if this dichotomy is correct. These two (instinct and smarts) conceivably overlap to a high degree: A snake must be able to figure out the best strategy among a multitude of different options in any given second, some of which could be highly hardwired, some of which surely are not. And figuring out how to tie itself round a pole might not need all that much computing. I don't see a reason that a snake should be completely different than humans in this regard. We are at the same time both hardwired and make informed, smart choices, not one or the other.
- im3w1l 6y agoI meant that it's difficult to come up with the idea of tying yourself into a knot. Not that it's hard to execute.
- daneel_w 6y agoSpatial intelligence.
- mhb 6y agoI don't think all snakes use sidewinding. If they don't, an interesting test of this would be to put them in a sidewinding environment (e.g., sand dunes) and see if they discover it.