Saturday, February 08, 2020
How things work
Via Eurekalert, an important bit of research on the nature of consciousness and intelligence.
We already know that cuttlefish are conscious because they dream with externally visible signs.
This research shows that cuttlefish can anticipate the future and plan accordingly.
When cuttlefish know that shrimp - their favourite food - will be available in the evening, they eat fewer crabs during the day. This capacity to make decisions based on future expectations reveals complex cognitive abilities. "It was surprising to see how quickly the cuttlefish adapted their eating behaviour - in only a few days they learned whether there was likely to be shrimp in the evening or not. Random provision of evening shrimp meant that the cuttlefish could not predict whether their favourite food would be available for dinner each day, so they made sure they had enough to eat earlier in the day. When conditions changed, the cuttlefish changed their foraging strategy to match.Anticipation is the crucial mark of full intelligence, both in perception and in decisions. All functional humans use anticipation in perceiving speech and visible events, but less intelligent humans don't predict the future when deciding what to do. The same line shows up among familiar mammals like dogs and cats. Intelligent dogs know in great detail what's going to happen next. They KNOW HOW THINGS WORK, so they know what to do before a predictable event. Unintelligent dogs just go with the flow. Cuttlefish have an entirely different brain structure built from mollusc parts, which are entirely different from vertebrate parts. The structure doesn't matter because the PURPOSE is the same. LIFE IS PURPOSE. The purpose of Room 101 (now called Github) is to WIPE OUT ANTICIPATION. After you've been whipsawed back and forth several times per second, you no longer KNOW HOW THINGS WORK. You can't detect a change in patterns. You simply go with the flow as it flows into your senses from TV and iPhone.
Labels: defensible thymes, defensible times, Grand Blueprint
¶ 12:06 AM
