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Date: | Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:39:46 -0400 |
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If you have no time to read this, at least go to this link and read the
article :http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7292334.stm
I was labelling honey late last night (labelling has become a very time
consuming business as I now have to put on four labels: the main label,
the nutrition label, the certified tracking number lid sealing label and
the Certified 100% British Columbia Honey label. If anyone knows where I
can buy an inexpensive labelling machine please let me know) while
listening to Ideas on CBC radio. The program was discussing how biologists
decided back around 1900 that the human body must be similar to a machine.
They just had to discover the parts to the machine to describe how it
worked. So the idea of a part named a gene that held a blueprint of the
body came along before genes were discovered. Then genes were discovered
and everyone said 'fine, fine, good, good, just as we predicted'. I'm just
a wee bit over my head in discussing this and maybe someone like Peter
Borst can step in and wipe the floor with me but this was the general gist
of the program.
But now, as they learn more and more about the human genome and genes
themselves, they are discovering that genes are not near as cut and dried
as they thought. In fact it is getting increasingly difficult to define
just what a gene is. And if you can't define something, maybe just maybe
it doesn't actually exist. Some are suggesting biology is entering a
period similar to that of physics when Einstein came along and upset all
the established theories of how things work.
I couldn't help apply all this to how science views honeybees. We have
always thought of them as robots reacting to various stimuli. Can anyone
think of any observation or experiments in beekeeping that cannot be
explained by the robot model?
A few years ago I read a long chewy article in the New Yorker. If I
remember right it was written by a women who had become a beekeeper after
having a career as a librarian. Maybe someone more familiar with the
article can confirm this but I think I remember reading that she once had
a bunch of bees clustered against a window screen in her honey house. And
some bees came along and landed on the outside of the screen and after a
little 'conflab', the bees inside crawled across the ceiling of the honey
house to a crack somewhere off in the dark and escaped to the outside. I
have never seen anything like that but if I did I would have a hard time
explaining it with the robot model.
The only other 'maybe' I can come up with is an experiment I was told of
in which a researcher shook bees onto drone foundation; the queen had
nothing but drone cells to lay eggs in. After a period of laying drones
the queen started laying fertilized eggs in the drone cells. Either this
was a conscious decision by the queen or evolution had somehow programmed
her for just such a situation.
I am currently reading a book titled "Theater of the Mind, Raising the
Curtain on Consciousness" by Jay Ingram. It is interesting how complicated
and difficult it is to describe exactly what consciousness is. Some say an
animal has it if it can demonstrate an awareness of self. Jay gives the
example of the scrub jay which hides it's food (insects) in sand for
future use. Experiments have shown that if a jay knows it has been
observed doing this by a neighbouring bird it will go back later after the
neighbour has flown off and re-hide the insects. So is it putting itself
in it's neighbours shoes so to speak?
In talking to bird researchers I have learned of experiments done on birds
in which a male is caged and allowed to watch as his
social mate is visited by other males (seriously, people have done
this),or if the female is just removed for an hour or so (indicating, I
guess,that she's been off fooling around), the resident male will reduce
the amount he invests in feeding the chicks later (since he figures they're
less likely to be his I'm assuming). All robotic and unconscious?
I had been thinking about all this when someone sent me the link to the
article on ants above. So it makes me wonder if any of you have ever
observed behavior in bees that is difficult to explain with the robot
model? And can you think of any experiment that would prove or disprove
consciousness in bees?
Ted
Thinking: I might not be conscious after all.
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