3 ms·
Speed and efficiency are often lost to gain flexibility, and this tradeoff is often ignored when you see articles extolling non-human intelligence of birds, in
by SubiculumCode 5y ago
Speed and efficiency are often lost to gain flexibility, and this tradeoff is often ignored when you see articles extolling non-human intelligence of birds, insects, etc. Insects, through evolution have created highly efficient and FAST neural circuits that lead to fit behaviors, but the fitness of these circuits and behaviors often mask their inflexibility to a change of context. Change the context and the lightning fast reflexes of a fly can be made to make it unfit.
- FredPret 5y agoRegarding lack of mental flexibility - it’s like when you move a turtle to a new patch of grass. Sometimes they get confused by the teleportation and will stop eating until they’ve made their way to their home range, which is sometimes never.
- wildermuthn 5y agoThis is a really great point. The difference is between instinct and intelligence. But is the difference merely due to a greater amount of neurons between a spider and a chimp, or is there a fundamentally different architecture of those neurons that enables intelligence over instinct? Not coincidentally, the creatures we most often associate with intelligence happen to be mammals, who alone have a neo-cortex.