Fun Fact: Brain Size & Evolution

[Becky Lindroos]

Times have changed from the abject fear of anthropomorphizing animal behavior.  The idea of animal consciousness is now being explored seriously.  Jane Goodall would love it.  

See the book -  “Are We Smart Enough To Know How Smart Animals Are?”  by Frans de Waal - excellent study on animal self-awareness and problem-solving among other things.    It goes into animals from chimps to octopuses (yes,  that’s correct) - and hits some dogs and birds and insects along the way.   

Then there’s “The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness”  by Sy Montgomery (who is not a scientist but an “observer” and a reporter of animal behavior.)  And I do NOT ever want to eat octopus again!  This book is kind of simple but it’s pretty interesting  

Or if you want to go further there’s "The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate - Discoveries from a Secret World”  by  Peter Wohlleben

 I’ve read the ones listed above but there are a lot more books now -  “What a Fish Knows” by Jonathan Balcombe is on my wish list as is "Mind of the Raven”  by: Bernd Heinrich. -  Many, many books in the last several years.  
	 

Becky
https://beckylindroos.wordpress.com

> On Dec 8, 2017, at 11:31 AM, Arthur Fuller <fuller.artful at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> While not being a scientist, merely a philosopher and more specifically a philosopher of science, I must dispute the notion that brain-size is equivalent to quantity of intelligence -- which, I admit, depends upon your unit of measure. Squirrels cannot play piano; but they can navigate trees and hydro wires far better than you or I. Whales can communicate over 1000 miles. Wolves hunt in teams, isolating the most likely victim. This last is a double-edged sword; it may be that the most vulnerable deer sacrifices him/herself for the sake of the herd. That's a difficult proposition to prove, but I've seen similar behaviour in birds when attacked by hawks or falcons. I have seen this more than several times. One bird flies off from the rest and sacrifices her/hiself  for the sake of the rest.
> 
> There is a school of thought, originating from B.F. Skinner I think, that supposes that all species act in their individual self-interest. Abundant evidence contradicts this thesis. Similarly the proposed correlation between brain size and intelligence. Taken literally, whales and porpoises and elephants would top the scale, but none of them has invented written language, and further, they are not very good at transmitting knowledge from generation to generation -- a little I grant, but not much.
> 
> The evidence, insofar as my limited education reveals, is that there is no relation between brain size and intelligence. That also applies to the ability to navigate a maze.
> 
> Arthur
> 
> On Thu, Dec 7, 2017 at 10:23 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
> Efficiency, yes.  But the rest is a maze. But the maze is fascinating.
> 
> On Thu, Dec 7, 2017 at 9:11 PM John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com> wrote:
> I've heard that the number of folds (I'm sure there's a proper word
> for them) is really important too, not just the overall size. Using
> that thing more efficiently, as you say. I mean, computers have gotten
> slightly smaller in the last half century too.
> 
> On Fri, Dec 8, 2017 at 2:01 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Fun fact: domesticated animals have evolved to have smaller brains than
> > their wild species cousins.  No pain, less brain (size)?
> >
> >
> > We humans are also mostly domesticated.  Are our brains smaller than those
> > of our earlier cousins?
> >
> >
> > It is also a fun fact that more intelligent species consistently have
> > smaller brain-to-body size ratios.  So counter intuitive, right?
> >
> >
> > Maybe brains become more efficient and smaller as intelligence grows.  Maybe
> > intelligence grows with domestication.  But whales and elephants are on the
> > smaller brain, more intelligent scale, and are not "domesticated."  Are
> > there species (us) that have self-domesticated, therefore becoming more
> > intelligent?
> >
> >
> > "Domesticated" in this context does not mean under subjection of another
> > species.
> >
> >
> > Just a thought...
> >
> >
> > David Morris
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Arthur
> 

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