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The Crow Paradox

20 points by robg 17y ago

TrevorJ 17y ago
Paradox seems a strong word for something that could have any number of legitimate reasons behind it. There is no compelling, logical reason to expect that becasue crows can differentiate between humans, we should be able to differentiate between them. You would expect crows to need to be able to identify predators pretty precisely, whereas humans have little reason to differentiate between different members of the crow species becasue our survival would never depend on it.
- Pahalial 17y ago
  Agreed. He even puts forth that very explanation. Hardly "a statement which contradicts itself."
shaunxcode 17y ago
More like "the crow fascination". I thought this was going to be related to the parable of the crow at least (not really a paradox either) in which the crow wants to get water from the bottom of a barrel which her beak can not quite reach. Being an engineer she realizes that she can raise the level of the water by dropping stones in. By the time she has dropped enough stones in the water has actually just moved to fill the voids between them. She continues to drop stones on the now overflowing barrel of stones unwilling to admit she should have just broken the container open in the first place. She dies of thirst shortly there after. Hows that for a kids book?
curtis 17y ago
I was once chased by a crow for a good hundred yards, if not more. It cawed at me aggressively, and as I would get farther away, it fly to a new position so it could keep cawing at me. Several times it buzzed me from behind a few feet from my head. Finally I went around a corner where I was completely obscured from the crow and the place where it originally started harassing me (there was a 12 or 14 story building in the way). I thought I had finally escaped. Then the crow buzzed me one last time, flying past me from behind so close that it hit me on the shoulder.
- mahmud 17y ago
  In Australia, Magpies are known to peck people in the head and even made some people I know bleed when they were kids. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magpie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magpie

20 points by robg 17y ago

Paradox seems a strong word for something that could have any number of legitimate reasons behind it. There is no compelling, logical reason to expect that becasue crows can differentiate between humans, we should be able to differentiate between them. You would expect crows to need to be able to identify predators pretty precisely, whereas humans have little reason to differentiate between different members of the crow species becasue our survival would never depend on it.

Pahalial 17y ago
Agreed. He even puts forth that very explanation. Hardly "a statement which contradicts itself."

shaunxcode 17y ago

More like "the crow fascination". I thought this was going to be related to the parable of the crow at least (not really a paradox either) in which the crow wants to get water from the bottom of a barrel which her beak can not quite reach. Being an engineer she realizes that she can raise the level of the water by dropping stones in. By the time she has dropped enough stones in the water has actually just moved to fill the voids between them. She continues to drop stones on the now overflowing barrel of stones unwilling to admit she should have just broken the container open in the first place. She dies of thirst shortly there after. Hows that for a kids book?

curtis 17y ago

I was once chased by a crow for a good hundred yards, if not more. It cawed at me aggressively, and as I would get farther away, it fly to a new position so it could keep cawing at me. Several times it buzzed me from behind a few feet from my head. Finally I went around a corner where I was completely obscured from the crow and the place where it originally started harassing me (there was a 12 or 14 story building in the way). I thought I had finally escaped. Then the crow buzzed me one last time, flying past me from behind so close that it hit me on the shoulder.

mahmud 17y ago
In Australia, Magpies are known to peck people in the head and even made some people I know bleed when they were kids. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magpie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magpie