Five point something senses
The life series is a documentary series by Sir David Attenborough consisting of 9 parts and is a comprehensive survey of terrestrial life on planet earth. The more I see it, the more the phrase 'five sensed creatures' grates against my senses. I think its an extremely uncharitable statement. The more episodes of the above series I see, the more I am convinced that every species possesses an additional sense that can be termed 'intelligence' within its context.
After having seen spiders that make clubs of silk to hit moths flying around it, insects that practice a type of genetic engineering, crows that break nuts by throwing them into the line of traffic, pigeons that close wings and fall down straight from air at the last moment to escape an eagle, octopuses that camouflage by changing color, texture, skin pattern etc to match nearby algae and a million other wonderful adaptations, it seems to me that these creatures are actively and consciously working to adapt better and better to their surroundings. I am totally for calling this conscious effort by these creatures to adapt as their sixth sense. In comparison with the human sixth sense, we should at least call those creatures as the five point something sensed creatures.
I had about an year ago read the book 'Beyond reductionism - reinventing the sacred' by Stuart Kauffman but I really couldnt get his high level idea clearly then. I think I now understand the book a bit more. His basic idea is that natural selection is not the only force active in the evolution of species. He says complex systems self-organize and then natural selection kicks in after this stage. His motivation for this line of thought is much more clear to me after watching this series.
The life series is a documentary series by Sir David Attenborough consisting of 9 parts and is a comprehensive survey of terrestrial life on planet earth. The more I see it, the more the phrase 'five sensed creatures' grates against my senses. I think its an extremely uncharitable statement. The more episodes of the above series I see, the more I am convinced that every species possesses an additional sense that can be termed 'intelligence' within its context.
After having seen spiders that make clubs of silk to hit moths flying around it, insects that practice a type of genetic engineering, crows that break nuts by throwing them into the line of traffic, pigeons that close wings and fall down straight from air at the last moment to escape an eagle, octopuses that camouflage by changing color, texture, skin pattern etc to match nearby algae and a million other wonderful adaptations, it seems to me that these creatures are actively and consciously working to adapt better and better to their surroundings. I am totally for calling this conscious effort by these creatures to adapt as their sixth sense. In comparison with the human sixth sense, we should at least call those creatures as the five point something sensed creatures.
I had about an year ago read the book 'Beyond reductionism - reinventing the sacred' by Stuart Kauffman but I really couldnt get his high level idea clearly then. I think I now understand the book a bit more. His basic idea is that natural selection is not the only force active in the evolution of species. He says complex systems self-organize and then natural selection kicks in after this stage. His motivation for this line of thought is much more clear to me after watching this series.
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