This blog may help people explore some of the 'hidden' issues involved in certain media treatments of environmental and scientific issues. Using personal digital images, it's also intended to emphasise seasonal (and other) changes in natural history of the Swansea (South Wales) area. The material should help participants in field-based modules and people generally interested in the natural world. The views are wholly those of the author.
Wednesday, 31 May 2023
'Talk' to the Animals?
Asking the basic question whether 'humans can ever understand how animals think', seems a bit premature. Behaviour, is a means by which many animal species can increase their DNA's chances of survival in subsequent generations (it's 'adaptive'). Behaviour often enables the organism to more effectively exploit its environment and to deal with change. Behaviour seems to be always an amalgam of genetically-programmed responses and experience-related changes. We tend to call the former 'instinct' and the latter 'learning' (but all behaviours probably have components of both in different ratios). The concept of 'thinking' is linked to the learning component. The concept of 'thinking' animals has currently more salience because it's been gradually recognised that certain skills (like self-recognition, language and estimating probabilities of reward) are not exclusive to Homo sapiens (https://www.theguardian.com/news/2023/may/30/can-humans-ever-understand-how-animals-think). It actually seems unlikely that 'thinking' is an identical process in all humans. Different folk have different what are referred to as 'cognitive styles'. One must consequently conclude that the 'cognitive styles' of different species are going to be even more varied. What's important to different species will vary a lot. They also rely on complex mixtures of senses, again potentially very different from human 'experience'. Perhaps it isn't important to know how animals think? What may be more important, is to recognise that animals shouldn't be regarded as automata. Some have quite complex capabilities. How they arrive at their solutions isn't necessarily going to have direct parallels to human cognition.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Weight-loss Drugs: A Panacea?
GLP-1RAs are found in all weight-loss medications including Mounjaro; Saxenda;and Wegovy. A very substantial US study, looked at almost 21...
-
It's necessary, where possible, to replace diesel and petrol-fueled vehicles by electrical equivalents. Electric vehicles (EVs) don...
-
Zonal pricing is a proposed change to the UK energy market. It would result in energy consumers paying less for electricity, if they are ba...
-
Seagrasses are the only flowering plants growing in marine environments. Seagrass meadows (large accumulations of these plants) provide vit...
No comments:
Post a Comment