4 ms·

Intelligence - big brains - is costly, whether in terms of metabolic needs (20% of human energy!), head size (human birthing difficulty), or weight - an issue f

Intelligence - big brains - is costly, whether in terms of metabolic needs (20% of human energy!), head size (human birthing difficulty), or weight - an issue for birds. Intelligence will only arise where the benefits outweigh the costs, which basically means for generalist species that need to be highly adaptive to prevailing conditions/resources, not just a one-trick optimized machine like a crocodile or cow. Not all modern birds are intelligent - some like chickens are clearly not, which is understandable because they don't need to be. However, the sheer variety of habitats and food sources utilized by birds (from raptors to penguins, ostriches to hummingbirds) would seem to indicate that generality and intelligence may have developed early as they were pushed to, and able to, explore new environments, and survive climate and other challenges over the millenia. Some birds like covids are still generalists and therefore highly intelligent, while others have settled into much narrower behavioral niches and have therefore lost it (or perhaps never had it).

Taek 2y ago
This comment is giving me "I am very smart" vibes. Yes, everything you said was true, but I'm not sure it's adding that much value to the discussion and it comes across like its correcting GP, who never claimed that all birds are intelligent. In fact, the tone of GP implicitly acknowledges that intelligence has a cost, because the post implies that intelligence isn't likely to manifest unless there's a clear advantage (presumably because intelligence has a cost which needs to be overcome by an advantage)
- HarHarVeryFunny 2y ago
  GP's whole thesis was that bird intelligence is related to their high-in-the-sky perspective and prey tracking, which is wrong. If this was the case then the smartest birds would be raptors. The need for intelligence comes from being a generalist, needing to learn and apply a large complex set of situation dependent rules. This is why specialists like raptors, chickens, penguins are not renowned for their intelligence. A good outward sign of intelligence is playfulness, a trait evolved to put the player in learning situations to feed their intelligence. Animals like apes, dolphins and crows are all very playful. Eagles not so much. So, yeah, I was correcting GP. If you don't like it, then too bad.
freilanzer 2y ago
Cows are quite intelligent.

Taek 2y ago

This comment is giving me "I am very smart" vibes. Yes, everything you said was true, but I'm not sure it's adding that much value to the discussion and it comes across like its correcting GP, who never claimed that all birds are intelligent. In fact, the tone of GP implicitly acknowledges that intelligence has a cost, because the post implies that intelligence isn't likely to manifest unless there's a clear advantage (presumably because intelligence has a cost which needs to be overcome by an advantage)

HarHarVeryFunny 2y ago
GP's whole thesis was that bird intelligence is related to their high-in-the-sky perspective and prey tracking, which is wrong. If this was the case then the smartest birds would be raptors. The need for intelligence comes from being a generalist, needing to learn and apply a large complex set of situation dependent rules. This is why specialists like raptors, chickens, penguins are not renowned for their intelligence. A good outward sign of intelligence is playfulness, a trait evolved to put the player in learning situations to feed their intelligence. Animals like apes, dolphins and crows are all very playful. Eagles not so much. So, yeah, I was correcting GP. If you don't like it, then too bad.

freilanzer 2y ago

Cows are quite intelligent.