Intellegent animals

[STYRBJORN]

The critical polnt here is making the "right" decision. A species that makes the "wrong" decision more than 50% of the time will quickly be an extinct species. A species that only scores 50% right may as well toss a coin. If a species makes the "right" decision more than 50% of the time it will succeed at the cost of the rest. Evolution in action!

Ric

[animartco]

Originally Posted by STYRBJORN

The critical polnt here is making the "right" decision. A species that makes the "wrong" decision more than 50% of the time will quickly be an extinct species. A species that only scores 50% right may as well toss a coin. If a species makes the "right" decision more than 50% of the time it will succeed at the cost of the rest. Evolution in action!

Ric

Well quite Strybjorn. I agree it's evolution in action but it has little to do with intelligence. Slimemoulds yeasts polyps etc have to 'decide' when to reproduce. The 'decision' is based on whatever data on their environments they are aware of. So you could say that the strain of whatever that had the most ability to collect data on which to predict weather patterns or salinity; or whatever in their environments constitutes good breeding conditions, plus the ability to act when the breeding conditions are most favourable, has the evolutionary advantage. Of course the slimemould could be thinking 'Oh not quite humid enough..hang on no wait.. NOW!' But I doubt it. The decision is probably made chemically. It is a questin of the relative sophistication of the organism. Which I suppose you could say was a form of intelligence, but it cannot be applied to more complex organisms as individuals, because it is dependent on evolutionary adaptations.