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Evolution of Intelligence More Complex Than Once Thought
palegray.net writes "According to a new article published in Scientific American, the nature of and evolutionary development of animal intelligence is significantly more complicated than many have assumed. In opposition to the widely held view that intelligence is largely linear in nature, in many cases intelligent traits have developed along independent paths. From the article: 'Over the past 30 years, however, research in comparative neuroanatomy clearly has shown that complex brains — and sophisticated cognition — have evolved from simpler brains multiple times independently in separate lineages ...'"
This proves that the Intelligent Designer:
- has never been taught of proper design practice and re-use of previous work
- has been sued by the other intelligent designer who built the previous brain for patent infringement and thus couldn't use the same brain but had to built a new one
- is so messy that instead of trying to dig again her/his/its plans of the previous (intelligent) design for brains somewhere under a mountain of junk, restarting everything from scratch is a better alternative
- isn't meticulous and precise enough be succeed making the same brain twice in a row
- is so bored the she/he/it needs to reinvent the wheel every week or so
- has Alzheimer's disease
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Some time ago I read that spamming software had broken the captcha in gmail. Today I had to log into my gmail account and discovered that I am unable to parse the captcha.
Maybe I am not as smart as I thought I was.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
I don't believe it would take a God to steer evolution; based on all available evidence, it would take a God to stop it.
Hence, the bible belt.
Too many captchas generate unreadable garbage, requiring you to waste time by refreshing the page (and re-entering passwords, etc.). I have seriously considered searching for whatever it is spammers use to beat captchas and download it for myself.
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
I believe they are usually referred to as "Indians".
Only three things are certain; death, taxes, and apocryphal quotations - Ben Franklin.
I've just read the first 5 lines of the wikipedia article on Markov chains and am therefore the closest thing to an expert on this subject you're likely to find any time soon. Does the Markov property prohibit causal interdependence between events? That is to say, is it in keeping with a markov chain if a species develops a higher intelligence in order to evade an otherwise unrelated predator species? I would suggest not.
You thought you could break the laws of physics without paying the PRICE?
I'm curious, assuming you really don't "believe in evolution," what do you believe stops it? Leptons and quarks organize themselves into atoms, atoms into molecules, molecules into amino acids and peptide chains.
I dropped a petitde chain this morning the size of a small baryonic particle. At one point, I wasn't sure if I was taking physics, or if the physics was taking me. And while I'm on that point, what's the deal with studying physics? Shouldn't it be physically studying? I'm certainly not taking anything with me when I'm done.
But back on topic, that dude's argument didn't make any sense, so why did you even respond?
I always figured one day humans would evolve into machines, and machines would continue to evolve.
But Vista changed my opinion about that.
Go tell that to him, but he won't be happy.
Disclaimer: he doesn't shoot the bearer of bad tidings, but he will eat his soul.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Note that many organisms survive very nicely with no brain at all.
Commence republicans/neocons jokes in 3... 2... 1...
What barriers do you propose might exist that prevent one ancestral population from diverging into two arbitrarily-different ones?
If an individual strays too far genetically, God drops a rock on it.
Just look where it was published. The phrases "military intelligence" and "plastic silverware" spring to mind.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Note that many organisms survive very nicely with no brain at all.
I'm tired of you people picking on Bush. It's over for crying out loud.
Technically, murder-suicide does not violate the golden rule.
- is just another damn Perl hacker and enjoys exploring different ways of accomplishing the same thing.
FTFY.
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
Hah, man was made in gods image, aliens weren't! Time for some intergalactic space crusades.
A good education is a bit like a STD - it makes you unsuitable for a lot of jobs and gives you a desire to spread it.
Why don't Republicans believe in Evolution?
Because the first generation in their sample was Abraham Lincoln. The last was George W. Bush.
Xenon, where's my money? -Borno
Excuse me! I believe the proper term is Outsourced-American.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
John McCain, of course, because he's a fat cat himself and gives free room and board to another cat. And then there's this...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wguQGP4p-Dk
You can get to the Atlantic from Chicago by boat, so I want to agree. On the other hand, Chicago really isn't really part of an oceanic coast is it?