Can fish think?
Another post from the consistently interesting Phenomena site (the source of Not Exactly Rocket Science weekly updates), about fish send signals to eels about tunnels where prey may be hiding and can be flushed out, to the mutual advantage of the fish and the eels. It's charmingly entitled "When Your Prey's in a Hole and You Don't Have a Pole, Use a Moray."
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The version I'd heard was, "When you wade in the sea and a fish bites your knee..."
But this is even cleverer.
"“However, as the authors rightly point out, similarities in behavior do not necessarily suggest similarities in intelligence. The authors note that much of the fish’s behavior could be due to learning mechanisms, which do not necessarily require the flexibility of more complex cognition.”
"They remind us, again, that complex behaviour doesn’t necessarily imply complex minds."
and if you follow that link and follow the link to the next article you'll get this:
"Without obvious leaders or an overarching plan, this collective of the collective-obsessed is finding that the rules that produce majestic cohesion out of local jostling turn up in everything from neurons to human beings. Behavior that seems impossibly complex can have disarmingly simple foundations. And the rules may explain everything from how cancer spreads to how the brain works and how armadas of robot-driven cars might someday navigate highways. The way individuals work together may actually be more important than the way they work alone."
Maybe the beauty of the free market is that if follows nature's rules for complex organizational structures of multiple individuals.
Exactly!
SO Kerry the fish can think?
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