He was a She and She was pregnant!

[sunson]

Turns out, The fat spider here was only pregnant. How I missed the mating scene and the delivery. She is back in her 'regular' size and her web-size has gone down drastically. There is only one 'baby' that I see around. It builds a web proportional to its size. and like kids, its very playful and random in the web-building style. Sometimes it

Comments

[rudugudu]

I used to think human beings were naturally depressed. Happiness/pleasure elevates them but brings them back to their natural state of depression. Sometimes people go out of their way to feel bad and cuss. I'm almost sure that it's in their body's frame-work :)

[sunson]

If one is always depressed, where is further pain? How will the 'punishment' to a being be taken by the being?

and I think humans are not always depressed. Atleast I'm only very rarely depressed.

[sunson]

WOW. I've flicked your user pic, baby! I have been trying to get _this_very_ pic for such a long time! :)

[sunson]

Those emails that float around giving false information about how humans and pigs are the only ones that can enjoy sex and that for all other living things its only an 'instinctive urge' which they don't 'enjoy' doing.

[bipin]

Hmmmn. I don't pretend to be an expert in this, but I would imagine that only organisms capable of learning would have the pain/pleasure conditionals.

I do not see the need for a purely reactive agent (even if it appears intelligent) to be able to feel pleasure or, as you put it, 'be pleasure oriented'. Don't you think that such an organism could, given a state in its environment, just perform a ... table look-up .. and act accordingly?

In other words, would you expect an organism which banks (almost entirely) on its instincts to have the 'ability' to experience pleasure/pain?

[sunson]

Hmmmn. I don't pretend to be an expert in this, but I would imagine that only organisms capable of learning would have the pain/pleasure conditionals.

That is what the link is talking about. Without Memory, there is no point in having a reward and remembering the reward to go back to it.

In other words, would you expect an organism which banks (almost entirely) on its instincts to have the 'ability' to experience pleasure/pain?

Like? a plant? an ant?

[bipin]

That is what the link is talking about.
The way I read the article, the author seems to suggest that most (intelligent) organisms experience pleasure.

Maybe I wasn't clear in my earlier comment, but what I wanted to say is that I disagree with that assertion, and that I believe that pleasure/pain is necessary only if you're programmed for some kind of (reinforced) learning. An organism not capable of such learning, I believe, has no use for such percepts.

Like? a plant? an ant?
Sure. I don't know whether ants can learn, but if they can't, I don't see why they would have evolved to feel pleasure.

[sunson]

I think I wasn't clear in my previous comment as well. What I wanted to say is what you've just said.

There is no point in having a reward if an organism cannot remember whether something is 'good' or 'bad' for itself (learning).

If you were to design a robot will you put in a 'reward' system? (Asimov's robots do have a reward/punishment system :) ... that when they don't help a human they feel 'bad' about it. Asimov is God!)

[deponti]

I don't know about pleasure-pain conditioning in human beings..but it was a real pleasure to read the post title and read the description of the spider and the baby...babies of ALL kinds are so wonderful.

[chandrahasa]

Was it just me expecting pics in the post :P