Path: news.net.uni-c.dk!uninett.no!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.cwix.com!newsfeed.mt.sfl.net!news.nf.net!newsfeed.unb.ca!news.unb.ca!not-for-mail From: jaf@unb.ca (Tony Fitzgerald) Newsgroups: comp.ai.neural-nets,comp.lang.apl,comp.lang.awk,comp.lang.beta,comp.lang.cobol,comp.lang.dylan,comp.lang.forth Subject: Re: Einstein's Riddle Date: 14 Mar 2001 23:58:43 -0400 Organization: University of New Brunswick, Fredericton Lines: 45 Message-ID: <98pelj$oau@sol.sun.csd.unb.ca> References: <98njv5$rfh$1@localhost.localdomain> <3AAF9AB6.2E06BEBD@ix.netcom.com> <98o7mu$vcn$1@localhost.localdomain> NNTP-Posting-Host: sol.sun.csd.unb.ca X-Trace: malakbel.unb.ca 984628725 25805 131.202.3.6 (15 Mar 2001 03:58:45 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@malakbel.unb.ca NNTP-Posting-Date: 15 Mar 2001 03:58:45 GMT Xref: news.net.uni-c.dk comp.ai.neural-nets:67599 comp.lang.apl:29418 comp.lang.awk:17193 comp.lang.beta:12779 comp.lang.cobol:102700 comp.lang.dylan:24202 comp.lang.forth:78608 In article <98o7mu$vcn$1@localhost.localdomain>, wrote: >In comp.lang.forth J Thomas wrote: >: aph@redhat.invalid wrote: >:> : I doubt that there's a unitary intelligence. Different brains are >:> : good at solving different problems. We won't be ready to >:> : understand the intelligence of oak trees > >:> There is no evidence that oak trees do anything related to cognitive >:> processing. > >: We haven't found any evidence. > >Right. > >: We *won't* find any evidence unless we get a feel for what problems >: they solve. > >So we'll probably never know. Never mind. Actually, there is evidence that certain trees (don't know offhand whether oaks were included) are capable of communication. When some trees are under stress due to insect attack, they produce natural insecticides. Since it diverts energy from more productive pursuits such as growing roots or cambrium to produce insecticide, the tree prefers not to do so. Trees in the vicinity of one under such stress can detect the production of insecticide and begin producing it themselves even though not currently under direct attack by insects but in anticipation of attack in the near future. Granted, this communication is purely chemical, however, the response is in many ways indistinguishable from what we call intelligence, i.e. finding useful strategies to cope with survival in a sometimes harsh environment. Human intelligence is, at root, just the expression of excitatory and inhibitory connections between neurons in an electro-chemical system which bears many similarities to the purely chemical one of plants. Over billions of years, our DNA has found that it has a better chance of producing more DNA if it can fool its host into thinking there is more to life than simple chemistry. -- /"\ O- J. Anthony Fitzgerald -O \ / ASCII Ribbon Campaign O- jaf@UNB.ca -O X Against HTML Mail O- http://people.unb.ca/~jaf -O / \ O- Fredericton, NB, Canada -O