Natures wonders: insect migration (Introduction)

by dhw, Thursday, November 25, 2021, 09:06 (1092 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: Children perceive facts, learn the sounds that are associated with those facts, use those sounds to communicate with others, and eventually take decisions if the facts require a decision. Bees perceive facts, learn the movements that are associated with those facts, use the movements to communicate with others and eventually take decisions. Are you now saying that your God placed an algorithm in the human brain for children to learn a language, or do you think he gave them the intelligence to learn it? I see no difference between these processes other than scale and time span. Or have you now decided that humans are also automatons?

DAVID: We are back to the debate of how kids learn to handle language. They appear to have a built-in ability to sop it up very easily until age ten after which they learn a new language with an accent but otherwise handle the new one very competently. The theories involve an inborn ability which could be from God. As for the use of 'poshness' words, blame the author of the article.

We are not back to that debate. You had compared bees learning the dance to children learning their language. I am more than happy with your statement that the theories involve an inborn ability which could be from God. No algorithm, no set of precise instructions on which movements or words will convey which distances and directions, or which sounds correspond to which facts. The inborn ability can be summed up in one word: intelligence.