tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398117239974416524.post741995334858766616..comments2024-01-13T08:01:37.708+00:00Comments on Postcognitive Topics: That is not an applePostCog Topicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06744695402349056096noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398117239974416524.post-60321257317117391452013-02-24T18:14:34.553+00:002013-02-24T18:14:34.553+00:00In nature organisms with pretty limited cognitive ...In nature organisms with pretty limited cognitive ability can work out how to "hide the apple" by confusing or subverting the algorithms that predators or prey use. For example, some moths have decoded bats' echo-location algorithms and at exactly the moment beyond which the bat can't correct its course the moth closes its wings and drops from the bat's flight path. Incredibly it is reading the bat’s active tracking system and has perfected it response to the information stream.<br /><br />Plants too can work out what insects are "thinking", for example carnivorous plants lay honeydew bait at the opening of a one-way trapdoor to a pseudo stomach where the insect (and sometimes even small mammals or frogs) is slowly digested. In the case of the plants it's probably possible to argue that through countless generations plants that incidentally trapped insects out-performed those that didn't and hence there was no cognition involved - but if that's true, at what stage is it possible to attribute the beginning of cognition? Presumably we too evolved by reproduction of ever more sophisticated evolutions of primitive cognitive random mutations.<br /><br />If a moth can read a bat’s echo-location signals and take evasive action that relies on a precise model of the bat’s momentum and manoeuvring envelope (moths don’t study physics) and a plant can set a trap for insects based on “knowing” their attraction to (very scarce) sugars then fooling Google by putting spots on an apple helps us understand the constant interplay of predator and prey. For example is it possible for a corporation like Google to evolve a predatory capability without anyone consciously setting about that objective, if not then why the need for the motto “Do No Evil”? Did the founders anticipate a corporate distributed cognition that was not the objective or competence of any individual but was the inevitable outcome of thousands of “generations” of survival practices employed daily to keep the dollars flowing?<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18084689030161354433noreply@blogger.com