Natures wonders: insect migration (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, December 06, 2021, 16:13 (1081 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: The issue is the proposed algorithm's contents. The author implies as they watch the dance they automatically know what it means.

dhw: They don’t. According to the author, “Honey bees are able to interpret the dance after about one week.” A worker bee born in the summer will live for 6-7 weeks, so the period of learning would be our equivalent of about 10 years. Please stop hiding behind the author’s vague terms. How can the bee possibly know the meaning of the dance if it knows nothing about flowers, distances and directions?

Yes how? If you sat in a classroom and were given these vague dances about things you know nothing about, how would you know what to do? But the new bee does, because his brain has an automatic program of interpretation, the author's not so vague point.

dhw: You have agreed that they watch and learn the movements, experience what they are told to look for, memorize information, and perform all the actions they have learned over this one-week period. Do you not agree that learning, memorizing, communicating, experiencing and putting theory into practice are characteristic features of intelligence?

Explained: all done by an implanted algorithm, deep brain interpretation not needed.

Ant bridge algorithm

DAVID: All animals are built to note danger. The first ant at a stream will automatically stop as he spots the danger. The rest with the same reaction pile on to go over.

dhw: All ants forage for food, so why don’t all species of ant automatically stop and build bridges when they come to gaps? Are you saying that your God specially chose eciton hamatum for his algorithm, because without one species of ant building bridges he could never have designed humans and their food (his one and only purpose)?

I would assume, as you should, the Army ants special travels in their special environment required the development of bridge-building skills.

DAVID: Automaticity can explain all of it. We are still on the outside looking at a 50/50 probability, just as in cells.

dhw: 50/50, but you go on opting for 100% automaticity and refuse to answer my question. Once again: Intelligence requires cognition, sentience, purposefulness with sensory, communication, information-processing and decision-making capabilities. All these attributes of intelligence are required for ant bridges, farms, nurseries, cities, strategies for defence and attack. Leaving aside your fixed belief, please explain why – apart from time required and scale of building etc – these obvious attributes are different from those we observe in humans.

DAVID: Outward appearance still gives a 50/50 probability.

dhw: Once more: 50/50, but you go for 100% no, and still you refuse to explain why all the manifested features of intelligence exhibited by insects and bacteria and cells in general are different from those exhibited by humans, apart from time and scale.

Fully explained as above by instinctual behaviour and algorithms. I have the right to interpret my 50%, while you doggedly stick to your ubiquitous brilliant consciousness everywhere partially in an attempt to reduce human specialness, diminishing God's special creation.