Natures wonders: Crocodile tools (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, December 08, 2013, 18:54 (4001 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: You love to juggle with "that word information".-Yes I do, because you seem to have a reluctance to view what is in the ant genome is information, and you can't or won't give me a source for it. The4 genome contains information by which the ants operate. Yes, they appear to have some basic intelligence which comes from that information. Information at the beginning of the ant species requires a source for the information.- 
> dhw: There would not be much point in teaching if the teacher had no information to impart! Here is my interpretation of the research. Ants learn either from experience or from their fellow ants how to trace food sources, and they pass this information on to other ants by teaching them. We humans do the same. No luck, no instinct, no copy-catting, no species consciousness, but simply the deliberate passing of information from one organism to another, which many of us would regard as a sign of intelligence.-I'll accept your statement if you will accept mine that they operate from information in their genome in their brains. I do think that most of it is instinct, but I admit they can do some simple teaching guided by instinct
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> dhw;If your question concerning the source of the "initial slug of information" relates to the mechanisms which give the ant its intelligence, the answer may possibly be your God, but the point we are discussing is whether or not the one-to-one lesson is a sign that ants are intelligent in their own right. You readily accept observation and specialist research which shows crows, rats and dogs to be intelligent. Why do you unreservedly reject observation and specialist research that shows formic intelligence? As with birds, so with ants: "This means that bird brains can show us an alternative solution out of how intelligent behavior is produced with a different anatomy." (Lena Veit)-Because I think it is mostly instinct just as bees dance to show where the pollen is hiding. Did they invent the dance or was it given to them? This is where I must say I don't know. God lets life figure it out or dabble?