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In the article, a neurobiologist at the U of Ariz is quoted as saying that insects have “the most sophisticated brains on this planet.”
Also, another researcher at the Neurosciences Institute (NSI) in San Diego offers:
The difference between the memories of a fly and a human might be a matter of degree. The human can store a lot more memories and can therefore maintain a more sophisticated personal narrative of his past and present. But van Swinderen believes “it could be exactly the same mechanism in a fly and a human.” Although there is still no evidence to decide either way, the result could be consciousness. (Read about the ingenious studies on the fly’s brain. Those scientists are so clever!)
Also, from last month’s National Geographic on bumblebees:
“Each bee has a brain the size of a grass seed, but the insects are able to harvest efficiently by solving one of math’s great puzzles: the traveling salesman problem…The bees studied…use spatial memory, rapidly refining routes through trial and error.”
If insects do turn out to be conscious, what are the implications?
In the article, a neurobiologist at the U of Ariz is quoted as saying that insects have “the most sophisticated brains on this planet.”
Also, another researcher at the Neurosciences Institute (NSI) in San Diego offers:
The difference between the memories of a fly and a human might be a matter of degree. The human can store a lot more memories and can therefore maintain a more sophisticated personal narrative of his past and present. But van Swinderen believes “it could be exactly the same mechanism in a fly and a human.” Although there is still no evidence to decide either way, the result could be consciousness. (Read about the ingenious studies on the fly’s brain. Those scientists are so clever!)
Also, from last month’s National Geographic on bumblebees:
“Each bee has a brain the size of a grass seed, but the insects are able to harvest efficiently by solving one of math’s great puzzles: the traveling salesman problem…The bees studied…use spatial memory, rapidly refining routes through trial and error.”
If insects do turn out to be conscious, what are the implications?
Yes, I’m sure I posted this link too in response to Bruce only a few days ago, I found it really thought provoking and worth further investigation.
I found this part of great interest:-
“They pack neurons into their brains 10 times more densely than mammals do. They also use each brain cell more flexibly than mammals. Several far-flung tendrils of a single neuron can each act independently—boosting computing power without increasing the number of cells.”
I found another good link on similar subject and it’s “related stories” are worth a read too, if you have more time.
For the record, solving problems and being conscious are two different concepts. Computers have memory and solve problems. In his book The Rough Guide To The Human Brain, author Barry J. Gibb (not the Bee Gees singer) discusses the phenomenon of blindsight. Some people with damage to their primary visual cortex are blind, even though their eyes function properly. They are able to track a moving object with their finger, even though they have no conscious awareness of sight. This is because visual processing occurs in more than one area of the brain, so that the brain continues to process light and record information and respond to stimuli from the eye, but the conscious mind remains unaware of the process.
Since insects lack the cortical structures that are found in higher, sentient creatures, it is quite possible that their brains are processing stimuli received through their eyes, but there is no consciousness of the process, just like with a computer.
In the article, a neurobiologist at the U of Ariz is quoted as saying that insects have “the most sophisticated brains on this planet.”
Brains develop and function as niches of the environment. All species do some thing(s) or another that other species can’t or don’t “need” to do. The day an insect holds a human under a microscope and publishes its findings in Beenational Geographic is the day I might consider it “the most sophisticated brain on the planet.”
I wonder how we could know whether they are self-conscious?
The sophisticated label reflects the idea that they do a whole lot with just a little material, beyond what would be expected in such a tiny brain:
They pack neurons into their brains 10 times more densely than mammals do. They also use each brain cell more flexibly than mammals. Several far-flung tendrils of a single neuron can each act independently—boosting computing power without increasing the number of cells. Somehow that circuitry allows a honeybee, with barely a million neurons on board, to meander six miles from its hive, find food, and make a beeline directly home. Few humans could do the same even with a map and a compass.
So it is sophisticated in the sense that a microprocessor is more sophisticated than the old ENIAC computer that took up a whole room.
Will the animal rights folks get upset if scientists experiment by performing operations on the ants’ teeny-tiny little brains? How would the other ants react to a deviant ant? You know, one that comes in late at night and smashes up the ant hole in violent rages?
Off topic, but I wonder what a big bowlful of ants would taste like?
Will the animal rights folks get upset if scientists experiment by performing operations on the ants’ teeny-tiny little brains? How would the other ants react to a deviant ant? You know, one that comes in late at night and smashes up the ant hole in violent rages?
Off topic, but I wonder what a big bowlful of ants would taste like?
Will the animal rights folks get upset if scientists experiment by performing operations on the ants’ teeny-tiny little brains? How would the other ants react to a deviant ant? You know, one that comes in late at night and smashes up the ant hole in violent rages?
Off topic, but I wonder what a big bowlful of ants would taste like?
I guess conscious doesn’t imply that they think like we do, though I know you were being facetious. Being innately anthropomorphic however, I always assumed that when I picked up an ant and it struggled in my fingers, it was experiencing thoughts akin to “Let go! Put me down!”—except without words.
As to how ants react to devi-ants, I’m sure dismemberment and consumption is the standard response.
As to how a big bowl of ants would taste, I’d say sour and crunchy, since ants produce formic acid (for attack and defense while alive). Though the honey ants in my state produce a kind of sweet juice which they store as colony food.
I’m not sure that recognizing consciousness would change our reactions to other animals that much, since we grant that farm animals are conscious, and we still kill and eat them.
Somehow that circuitry allows a honeybee, with barely a million neurons on board, to meander six miles from its hive, find food, and make a beeline directly home. Few humans could do the same even with a map and a compass.
So it is sophisticated in the sense that a microprocessor is more sophisticated than the old ENIAC computer that took up a whole room.
No wonder this guy is so impressed, he’s still getting around with a map and a compass instead of a GPS.
Somehow that circuitry allows a honeybee, with barely a million neurons on board, to meander six miles from its hive, find food, and make a beeline directly home. Few humans could do the same even with a map and a compass.
So it is sophisticated in the sense that a microprocessor is more sophisticated than the old ENIAC computer that took up a whole room.
No wonder this guy is so impressed, he’s still getting around with a map and a compass instead of a GPS.
And bees do it without any of that stuff. Plus they do a coded waggle dance when they return to the hive to tell their sisters where they found the nectar so they can set out to find it too.
I read once that consciousness may have developed as a means to better organize actions and access memories. So why couldn’t other creatures with complex actions and memory patterns have consciousness?
