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Showing posts with label smart. Show all posts
Showing posts with label smart. Show all posts
Man Can Survive a Major Disaster
If there is a major world disaster will Mankind survive? In the past our forebears got through environmental difficulties, so there is no reason to believe that this will not continue to happen. As technology becomes increasingly specialized, things we take for granted will be lost. Humanity will take a few steps back or fall right back into a survival-type culture.
The skill to print could end. Story telling could return as a way to pass on culture. Man has always been inquisitive about what lies over the horizon. Experimentation will still be the key to survival. In a major disaster only those species that can adapt will live through it.
Neanderthals were not smart enough to survive. This is despite their brains being larger than humans. The brains of Man obviously operated differently. This could have been the power of imagination. Neanderthals learned more by direct copying of behavior. Humans can deduce answers from information.
Another important factor is present in humans. We have the ability to live in close proximity to each other. Living in cities is a feature of Man. Neanderthals only existed in small groups. They could not "pool" knowledge and make it available to everyone. We develop and control our environment. Neanderthals did not.
History
Bees Calculate Energy Expended When Getting Pollen
Bees calculate how much energy they need to get pollen. To survive, bees must run on a "profit" basis. They must not use more energy in obtaining nectar than energy the nectar provides. Bees were given the choice of travelling along two pathways to get nectar. One pathway was 10 meters long, the other 20 meters. However, the "scenery" of the 10 meter pathway was designed to trick the bees into perceiving that it was the furthest distance away.
When the bees returned to their fellows in the nest they told them with a waggle dance which pathway to use to get more pollen. Despite the 10 meter pathway appearing to the bees to be further away they told other bees to go to the feeder in the 10 meter pathway. Somehow, they had worked out that it used up less energy to go to this feeder than the one on the other pathway.
It is believed that bees have "calorimeters" built into their brains. They do not judge energy expenditure solely based on distance travelled. A partly covered pathway would be given the okay over a pathway out in the weather for example.
Bees are smart little critters and we can learn a great deal from them.
When the bees returned to their fellows in the nest they told them with a waggle dance which pathway to use to get more pollen. Despite the 10 meter pathway appearing to the bees to be further away they told other bees to go to the feeder in the 10 meter pathway. Somehow, they had worked out that it used up less energy to go to this feeder than the one on the other pathway.
It is believed that bees have "calorimeters" built into their brains. They do not judge energy expenditure solely based on distance travelled. A partly covered pathway would be given the okay over a pathway out in the weather for example.
Bees are smart little critters and we can learn a great deal from them.
Entomology
Search for Smart Genes
It seems the level of intelligence is determined by a few genes. This must surely be too simplistic, particularly because specialists cannot agree on what intelligence is. How do you compare memorizing general knowledge to the skill of knitting a fine jumper? There are people who know just about everything about Australian rugby league, but this is their only area of expertise.
Finding will be made easier, apparently, by questioning the crowd rather that by brain scans, etc. It is believed that the sought after genes affect brain size. Considering that Neanderthals had larger brains than modern man, this seems to be the wrong hypothesis to start with.
While "the team" is sure they will find the genes they do admit that culture, education, health and upbringing can affect intelligence. How are they going to filter these things out? Obviously they can't. Twenty one thousand subjects were catalogued and brain imaging was used. Strangely, when the team was reaching its conclusions they discovered that another group was doing the same research with more people. Now that is clever.
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Society
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