The Australian Jewel Beetle nearly went extinct because of a beer bottle.
You see, the female of this species is large, brown, and bevelled. It shares this characteristic in common with the beer bottles often thrown on the side of the road here in Australia. And not only does a beer bottle share these characteristics with these beetles, it’s bigger than them. And the male jewel beetle? It likes its ladies big.
Australia had to change its beer bottles, because the males refused to mate with the females. They preferred to hump empty beer bottles on the side of the road. It couldn’t tell the difference between a beetle and a bottle. It was just using a statistical trick. “Anything brown, large, and bevelled is a female beetle”. That had been true in the ancestral environment, so evolution just used the pattern. And this cognitive shortcut lead to beetles trying to have sex with bottles.
I don’t think we understand shit all that much more than the beetles. I think we’re just mimicking intelligence too. And one day we’ll all die because of our own equivalent of the beer bottles.
You do realize that if this is what you believe it makes no sense to argue with you here.
Hell, if you believe in consciousness (which I presume you do), then you’re just along for the ride, there’s nothing you really can do (except perhaps figure out your predicament).
I refuse to accept it, therefore (the illusion of?) free will. Else I would drive me insane.
I think we have the ability to use our brains to actually solve problems, but it’s rare. It requires a kind of humility. We can’t assume we know everything, that we’re better than other creatures, or we’ll end up like the beetles.
The jewel beetles didn’t think they had anything more to learn about womanhood. They thought whatever makes their insect dick hard is a woman. A lot of right wing guys online these days share the same opinion.
And I mean, most of us drive cars to go zoom zoom, even though the emissions are killing life on Earth as we know it. We’re creating an environment more suited to dinosaurs than to mammals. And what do we use our massive brains for? We use them for excuses, not solutions. “I have to drive, otherwise I’ll starve”.
We’re going extinct, just like the beetles. And when people say humans aren’t just using statistical shortcuts to mimick intelligence, I can’t take them seriously.
The Australian Jewel Beetle nearly went extinct because of a beer bottle.
You see, the female of this species is large, brown, and bevelled. It shares this characteristic in common with the beer bottles often thrown on the side of the road here in Australia. And not only does a beer bottle share these characteristics with these beetles, it’s bigger than them. And the male jewel beetle? It likes its ladies big.
Australia had to change its beer bottles, because the males refused to mate with the females. They preferred to hump empty beer bottles on the side of the road. It couldn’t tell the difference between a beetle and a bottle. It was just using a statistical trick. “Anything brown, large, and bevelled is a female beetle”. That had been true in the ancestral environment, so evolution just used the pattern. And this cognitive shortcut lead to beetles trying to have sex with bottles.
I don’t think we understand shit all that much more than the beetles. I think we’re just mimicking intelligence too. And one day we’ll all die because of our own equivalent of the beer bottles.
You do realize that if this is what you believe it makes no sense to argue with you here.
Hell, if you believe in consciousness (which I presume you do), then you’re just along for the ride, there’s nothing you really can do (except perhaps figure out your predicament).
I refuse to accept it, therefore (the illusion of?) free will. Else I would drive me insane.
I think we have the ability to use our brains to actually solve problems, but it’s rare. It requires a kind of humility. We can’t assume we know everything, that we’re better than other creatures, or we’ll end up like the beetles.
The jewel beetles didn’t think they had anything more to learn about womanhood. They thought whatever makes their insect dick hard is a woman. A lot of right wing guys online these days share the same opinion.
And I mean, most of us drive cars to go zoom zoom, even though the emissions are killing life on Earth as we know it. We’re creating an environment more suited to dinosaurs than to mammals. And what do we use our massive brains for? We use them for excuses, not solutions. “I have to drive, otherwise I’ll starve”.
We’re going extinct, just like the beetles. And when people say humans aren’t just using statistical shortcuts to mimick intelligence, I can’t take them seriously.