The Pattern, Part 5: Karl Schroeder (again)
Karl Schroeder, in Permanence.
CONTINUATION OF A PREVIOUS POST: During exposition by characters, the idea is put forth that there are no intelligent tool-using non-human species traveling between the stars because tool-using implies you were not perfectly adapted to your niche, and once you do adapt, you no longer need tools or consciousness with which to imagine their uses.
Waaaaait a minute, Karl, my man - just because something is no longer needed in the new niche doesn't mean it gets edited out; traits are removed when the expression of the traits actively get you killed or otherwise impede your reproduction. The only other way is if tool-making and sentience were so costly in terms of energy expenditure long term that it reliably produced a negative impact on reproduction.
The problem with losing sentience and tool-making is that they are so flexible. They have so many ways to improve food-getting, mate-getting, predator-avoidance, group survival, getting rid of rivals, etc, etc, etc. These are as multi-use as, hm, fangs. More, even. Notice how many creatures have fangs or tusks? Some utter herbivores have them. I know there is a tipping point in terms of utility verses metabolic cost, but the more multi-function an adapation is, the harder it is to just edit out. Or am I thinking about this incorrectly.
As in so many areas, we have a problem of "where do you draw the line?"
Why put the bright line between the animal and the tool as the outside item with which it cheats evolution? What is getting passed down is either the type of brain that can think of tools, or the kind that can learn to use them by watching others or both, not the tools themselves. It's the ability to look at the environment and see the possibilities of re-purposing something; that sounds really adaptive in general to me.
Why aren't tools just part of the environment? If I strip a branch, eat the leaves, use the stem to lure termites from their home, eat the termites, then eventually eat the stem, how is that little branch a separate entity from my food? How is that an interposition between me and the environment?
CONTINUATION OF A PREVIOUS POST: During exposition by characters, the idea is put forth that there are no intelligent tool-using non-human species traveling between the stars because tool-using implies you were not perfectly adapted to your niche, and once you do adapt, you no longer need tools or consciousness with which to imagine their uses.
Waaaaait a minute, Karl, my man - just because something is no longer needed in the new niche doesn't mean it gets edited out; traits are removed when the expression of the traits actively get you killed or otherwise impede your reproduction. The only other way is if tool-making and sentience were so costly in terms of energy expenditure long term that it reliably produced a negative impact on reproduction.
The problem with losing sentience and tool-making is that they are so flexible. They have so many ways to improve food-getting, mate-getting, predator-avoidance, group survival, getting rid of rivals, etc, etc, etc. These are as multi-use as, hm, fangs. More, even. Notice how many creatures have fangs or tusks? Some utter herbivores have them. I know there is a tipping point in terms of utility verses metabolic cost, but the more multi-function an adapation is, the harder it is to just edit out. Or am I thinking about this incorrectly.
As in so many areas, we have a problem of "where do you draw the line?"
Why put the bright line between the animal and the tool as the outside item with which it cheats evolution? What is getting passed down is either the type of brain that can think of tools, or the kind that can learn to use them by watching others or both, not the tools themselves. It's the ability to look at the environment and see the possibilities of re-purposing something; that sounds really adaptive in general to me.
Why aren't tools just part of the environment? If I strip a branch, eat the leaves, use the stem to lure termites from their home, eat the termites, then eventually eat the stem, how is that little branch a separate entity from my food? How is that an interposition between me and the environment?