As an undergraduate, my introductory neuroscience course was taught by Johnny Palka, a developmental biologist and neuroscience who worked with Drosophila, who had to explain to us on the first day of class that flies have brains. It was memorable because I was surprised that anyone thought otherwise (don’t worry, the class got much more sophisticated and mathematical after that). But it’s true that there are an awful lot of people with that degree of ignorance.
“Most people think insects are reflex-based machines,” said Dr Olli Loukola, a behavioural ecologist at the University of Oulu, Finland, and senior author. “That they can’t have any emotional states or feel pain. Some people don’t even realise that they have brains. I hope that these results change the worldview about that.”
That’s from an article about bee intelligence, and if you think insect anatomy is a confusing topic for the general public, wait until you find out there are people who think intelligence can be reduced to a single number.
Only…biology can surprise you. We don’t even understand what intelligence is, so you should avoid limiting preconceptions. All it takes is a simple test to demonstrate the capabilities of insects.
The bees, which were only a couple of weeks old, were first trained to associate a blue artificial flower with a reward of sugar water. During the test, the flower was moved to the ceiling of a transparent petri dish-style chamber whose ceiling was too high for them to reach, but with insufficient space for them to hover. A ball was also introduced into the chamber. To reach the flower, the bee had to roll the ball under it and climb on top – a behavioural sequence they had never previously encountered or been trained to perform.
In the most basic version of the test, 75% of the bees were successful in reaching the flower. “This is essentially an insect version of the classic ‘box-and-banana’ problem,” said Loukola. “The animal must realise that an object can be repositioned and then used as a tool to reach an otherwise inaccessible goal. What stands out about the result is that this kind of spontaneous problem solving is now demonstrated in an insect.”
This is not to say that bees have the breadth of ability that a chimpanzee has. It’s saying that some things we regard as a significant intellectual capability can be implemented with a tiny number of neurons, and that includes tool use.
“There’s a general perception that intelligent behaviour requires big brains because we are big-brained and relatively intelligent among animals,” Chittka added. “Bees are a model of how much intelligence you can squeeze into a small nervous system … It’s a good reminder of there being a motivation to pay some respect to these other beings.”
Another example I’d point to is corvids — teeny tiny little bird brains that are remarkably smart.
Such as being the President of the United States.
Ze Frank on Bumblebees playing and doing math: https://youtu.be/M6hGjh9SJ_M?si=ugaehlCsk5ohEQ6Y
So, 25% of bees are stupid. Do they wear tiny red hats?
I remember a conversation with my driving school instructor many years ago, where he expressed surprise that insects can fit any organs at all into their tiny bodies.
re Walter Solomon@1
I would say that The Orange Turd does not have a significant intellectual capability.
A common internet factoid is the fact that dragonflies intercept their prey. I would assume this requires quite a bit more “compute” than just chasing it down.
johnson catman
But he does have a tiny number of neurons. And they don’t appear to be in great shape.
johnson catman @5: “I would say that The Orange Turd does not have a significant intellectual capability.”
A rather severe understatement.
He is incapable of understanding anything. When in school, his sister did his homework and he paid other students to take his tests, including his SAT. His father bought his way through college. Professor Kelly at Wharton said: “Donald Trump was the dumbest goddam[sic] student I ever had.” That is why he remained at a 3rd or 4th grade level of comprehension, even prior to his dementia. Now he is getting even stupider (which many had thought was impossible). Mango Mussolini takes dumbness into places few humans have ever even been before.
He has claimed that stealth jets are totally invisible, even if you stand next to one. The Continental Army took over the airports in the 1770s. Swallowing bright lights (or via the other end) would cure COVID, which he previously called just a hoax. Don’t forget that illegal immigrants have taken 107% of the new black jobs. His rally attendee counts are routinely inflated by factors of 10 or even more. He reduced the prescription drug prices by up to 1,600%, water “kills” magnets. Windmills cause cancer, kills the whales and birds, including eagles, in such large numbers that there are huge piles of dead birds under each windmill generator. Haitian immigrants are eating the pet cats and dogs in Ohio, solar power does not work, clean coal is when they wash it after extraction. He had no idea what the Pearl Harbor Memorial was all about, soldiers who died defending democracy in WWII are suckers and losers. And a complete description of his moronic ravings and lies would actually fill an encyclopedia.
His religious fanatic MAGAt followers are at similar level of willful ignorance and stupidity, as Jordan Klepper has easily shown in his many videos. His devout followers consider him to be the second coming of Jesus, oblivious to the obvious fantasies of their alleged “first coming” (it’s pious fantasies all the way down).
Our so-called artificial intelligence experts haven’t got a clue. The efficiency of evolved intelligence is the opposite of primitive, brute force machine learning.