4 ms·
If a fish sees two other fishes fighting, it can take note of the outcome of that interaction, and it's much more likely to engage and attack the loser — the fi
by thisjepisje 12y ago
If a fish sees two other fishes fighting, it can take note of the outcome of that interaction, and it's much more likely to engage and attack the loser — the fish that they think is lower in the hierarchy — and much less likely to attack the winner.
Can't we simply explain this more simply as fish remembering which other fishes are stronger or weaker? No need to introduce the concept of hierarchy here.
- jkrems 12y agoWhere exactly is the difference between "knowing your place in a hierarchy" and "knowing who is stronger and who is weaker"? Seems to me like two different ways of expressing the exact same thing.
- thisjepisje 12y agoYeah that's true, never mind.
- asolove 12y agoThis reminds me of the statement Norvig makes at the beginning of SICP that all AI programs seem like magic until you understand how they work, when they just seem quite unimpressive. What we're learning is not so much that fish are wonderfully intelligent as that the things we take as intelligence are actually not-so-complex patterns.
- baddox 12y agoIt seems to me more like "estimating threats" than "knowing your place in a hierarchy."
- tatterdemalion 12y agoThat is what a hierarchy is; a way of storing data about which fishes are stronger and weaker.