Saturday, August 24, 2019
Dumb finding, interesting advice
A study on how mule deer migrate reaches a stunningly unsurprising conclusion: Deer have brains.
Scientists had long presumed that migratory behavior was dictated by availability of food resources and other external factors. Where you find resources, you will find species that exploit them, the theory went. The UW team found it is not that simple. Without the intrinsic factor of landscape memory to guide deer between seasonal ranges, the long-distance corridors of western Wyoming's Green River Basin, for example -- exceeding 300 miles round-trip in some cases -- would not exist in their present form.Scientists have always presumed that only scientists have brains. Everything else just rolls along gradients, like pebbles rolling down a curved slope. Scientists are always SHOCKED to find that non-scientists are capable of complex thinking. Despite the usual fake surprise, these particular scientists came up with some smart advice:
This is critical for conservation, because it tells us that, to conserve a migration corridor, we need to conserve the specific animals who have the knowledge necessary to make the journey.Excellent thought. Now apply it to non-scientist humans. To preserve a civilization or an economy, we need to conserve and LISTEN to the specific people who have the skills that we're trying so fucking hard to obliterate. We can't just transfer the skill to another country or to a pack of incoming foreigners. Skills are not facts. Skills and routes can't be preserved in books or maps or USB sticks. They have to be preserved in the cerebellum of an animal or human who acquired the skill through EXPERIENCE.
Labels: skill-estate
¶ 3:34 PM
