It's Sunday, and the Giants are pounding the Raiders. As I sit and wonder what to blog, I ask my roommate if insects could ever evolve into beings as intelligent as we are. He is clad in a blue Giants jersey with hat, and is clutching a small 'Giants' Nerf-football. Upon being asked this question he simply peers over and says "their brains are tiny, they could never think like we do."
A scientist could spend his life pondering the same question, only to come to that same end result--a bug's brain is incapable of functioning at our level.
The main difference between the way humans and other animals have evolved is the kind of intelligence we have. Most animals have a special kind of intelligence, known as instinct, which means that they are born with special knowledge pre-programmed into their genetics. For instance, crocodiles are born with the special knowledge of hunting. Some guidance is needed, but the basic urge to do so is already stamped into the crocodile's mind.
Other "intelligent" animals, like humans, other advanced primates, and dolphins think differently. We don't have as much intelligence already programmed into us from the get go, as our intelligence must be learned. Humans aren't born with special knowledge of how to drive cars or operate computers, we are taught. Such knowledge must be passed down from generation to generation, hopefully leaving each a bit smarter than the next.
The number of species of insect ranges from two million to 50 million, due to the fact that humans have yet to find every living organism on this planet. In the history of the world, insects have remained to be organisms of lesser intelligence. All things evolve. Some things evolve so quickly, nobody ever knows that it happened. Everyday a human being evolves many ways thanks to our ability to think. The changes around us, the feelings we conspire, everything we do can lead to evolutionary breakthroughs. We can choose.
An insect does not have the choice to learn, they are not incapable of learning, but of comprehension, the insect knows little. For example, an ant is closely following behind his cousin on the way back to their home. A large shadow moves overhead and slowly a large object is closing down on them. The shadow is a man, and the object is a right-footed Nike. It's that simple.
An ant or any insect, for that matter, really doesn't have a chance at becoming as intelligent as we are. They've been around for millions of years and have yet to change significantly because they are not meant to. Even insects have highly-organized societies and methods of survival, but these are the skills in which these insects could evolve.
It goes back to Darwin, survival of the fittest, and simple evolutionary adaptation due to a change in environment. If global warming does persist, then perhaps insects will change in ways to survive. Insects could not evolve into beings as intelligent as we are, based on what we know now and the current status of our planet's ecology.
A scientist could spend his life pondering the same question, only to come to that same end result--a bug's brain is incapable of functioning at our level.
The main difference between the way humans and other animals have evolved is the kind of intelligence we have. Most animals have a special kind of intelligence, known as instinct, which means that they are born with special knowledge pre-programmed into their genetics. For instance, crocodiles are born with the special knowledge of hunting. Some guidance is needed, but the basic urge to do so is already stamped into the crocodile's mind.
Other "intelligent" animals, like humans, other advanced primates, and dolphins think differently. We don't have as much intelligence already programmed into us from the get go, as our intelligence must be learned. Humans aren't born with special knowledge of how to drive cars or operate computers, we are taught. Such knowledge must be passed down from generation to generation, hopefully leaving each a bit smarter than the next.
The number of species of insect ranges from two million to 50 million, due to the fact that humans have yet to find every living organism on this planet. In the history of the world, insects have remained to be organisms of lesser intelligence. All things evolve. Some things evolve so quickly, nobody ever knows that it happened. Everyday a human being evolves many ways thanks to our ability to think. The changes around us, the feelings we conspire, everything we do can lead to evolutionary breakthroughs. We can choose.
An insect does not have the choice to learn, they are not incapable of learning, but of comprehension, the insect knows little. For example, an ant is closely following behind his cousin on the way back to their home. A large shadow moves overhead and slowly a large object is closing down on them. The shadow is a man, and the object is a right-footed Nike. It's that simple.
An ant or any insect, for that matter, really doesn't have a chance at becoming as intelligent as we are. They've been around for millions of years and have yet to change significantly because they are not meant to. Even insects have highly-organized societies and methods of survival, but these are the skills in which these insects could evolve.
It goes back to Darwin, survival of the fittest, and simple evolutionary adaptation due to a change in environment. If global warming does persist, then perhaps insects will change in ways to survive. Insects could not evolve into beings as intelligent as we are, based on what we know now and the current status of our planet's ecology.
Brandon, you ask an interesting question but apparently undertook no research to try to answer it.
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