Denyse O'Leary

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
May 30, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Natural Intelligence, Programming

Tagged
Animal Algorithms (book), Ant algorithms, Anternet, Ants (neurons), Bert Hölldobler, Deborah M. Gordon (on ant algorithms), E. O. Wilson (on ants), Eric Cassell (on ant algorithms), Leafcutter ants, Naked mole rat, Neurons (various species), Pheromones, Programming (and ant algorithms), Superorganism concept}

Do Ants Think? Yes, They Do — But They Think Like Computers

_{Computer programmers have adapted some ant problem-solving methods to software programs (but without the need for complex chemical scents)} _{Denyse O'Leary

May 30, 2022

6

Artificial Intelligence, Natural Intelligence, Programming}

Navigation expert Eric Cassell, author of Animal Algorithms: Evolution and the Mysterious Origin of Ingenious Instincts (2021), offers some insights in the book into how ants organize themselves using what amount to algorithms, without any central command: Ants are remarkably consistent in their lifestyle: All of the roughly 11,000 species of ants live in groups, large or small. There are no known solitary ants. Living in groups, they have developed a social lifestyle that includes “agriculture, territorial wars, slavery, division of labor, castes, consensus building, cities, and a symbolic language.” (p. 85) How is this managed by ants with very small brains (200,000 to 250,000 neurons) and very limited individuality? For comparison, among mammals, the agouti has roughly 857 million Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
May 27, 2022

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Christof Koch (on prenatal consciousness), Fetus (mind and brain development), Unborn child (behavior)}

What Is the Human Mind Like Before Birth?

_{Researchers stress that the unborn child’s brain is in a rapid, ongoing, and little understood state of development} _{Denyse O'Leary

May 27, 2022

6

Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind}

Some have addressed the question of the prenatal mind by trying to determine when various parts of the brain develop. The difficulty with that, as neuroscientist Mark Solms and neurosurgeon Michael Egnor have noted, is that it’s not clear that there is a “seat” of consciousness in the brain. If it is a human brain at all, it is developing human consciousness, in the same way that a kitten brain is developing cat consciousness. At any rate, human consciousness is a “Hard Problem with no special location in the brain. Unborn babies, like very young born ones, spend most of their time asleep, as neuroscientist Christof Koch has pointed out: Invasive experiments in rat and lamb pups and observational studies Read More ›

dolphin underwater on reef close up look

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
May 24, 2022

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Butterflies (self-medicating), Cats (self-medicating), Chimpanzees (self-medicating), Dogs (self-medicating), Dolphins (self-medicating), Elephants (self-medicating), Fruit flies (self-medicating), Zoopharmacognosy}

The Remarkable Medicines Wild Animals Find in Nature

_{The “animals’ pharmacy” mainly aims at treating parasites and wounds using plants and insects} _{Denyse O'Leary

May 24, 2022

7

Medicine and Health, Natural Intelligence}

It turns out that many animals know how to alleviate some of their common health problems and we are only beginning to (officially) learn about it. Dolphins, for example: Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins get skin conditions, too, but they come about their medication by queuing up nose-to-tail to rub themselves against corals. In the journal iScience on May 19, researchers show that these corals have medicinal properties, suggesting that the dolphins are using the marine invertebrates to medicate skin conditions. Thirteen years ago, co-lead author Angela Ziltener (@DWAORG), a wildlife biologist at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, first observed dolphins rubbing against coral in the Northern Red Sea, off the coast of Egypt. She and her team noticed that the dolphins Read More ›

multiracial group with black african American Caucasian and Asian hands holding each other wrist in tolerance unity love and anti racism concept

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
May 22, 2022

Categorized
Environment, Ethics, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Human exceptionalism (opposition), Human rights and human exceptionalism, Jeff Sebo, Wesley J. Smith (on human exceptionalism)}

Prof: We Shouldn’t Necessarily Value Humans Over Other Animals

_{New York University environmentalism prof Jeff Sebo argues that humans are not always rational and that some animals display mental qualities so we aren’t exceptional} _{Denyse O'Leary

May 22, 2022

5

Environment, Ethics, Philosophy of Mind}

New York University environmentalism prof Jeff Sebo, co-author of Chimpanzee Rights (2018), sees human exceptionalism (the idea that there is something unique about human beings) as a danger to humans and other life forms. He does not think that we should necessarily prioritize humans over animals: Most humans take this idea of human exceptionalism for granted. And it makes sense that we do, since we benefit from the notion that we matter more than other animals. But this statement is still worth critically assessing. Can we really justify the idea that some lives carry more ethical weight than others in general, and that human lives carry more ethical weight than nonhuman lives in particular? And even if so, does it Read More ›

Young woman sitting on the floor, lights candles, enjoy meditation, do yoga exercise at home. Mental health, self care, No stress, healthy habit, mindfulness lifestyle, anxiety relief concept

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
May 22, 2022

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Mindfulness brain changes, Mindfulness health benefits, Mindfulness research, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (course), neuroplasticity, Richard Davidson, Tibetan Buddhist monks (meditation)}

Study: Eight-week Mindfulness Courses Do Not Change the Brain

_{Earlier studies may have been hampered by a small, self-selected, particularly needy participant base and by the fact that any intervention can succeed at first} _{Denyse O'Leary

May 22, 2022

5

Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind}

In recent years, as mindfulness meditation began to catch on, research, including this open-access paper, claimed that eight weeks of mindfulness could change the structure of the brain. The neuroplasticity on which such studies relied is real enough. But a just-released study has found no evidence that eight-week courses like “Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction” make so radical a difference: In new research, a team from the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, led by Richard J. Davidson, found no evidence of structural brain changes with short-term mindfulness training. Published May 20 in Science Advances, the team’s study is the largest and most rigorously controlled to date. In two novel trials, over 200 healthy participants with no meditation experience Read More ›

Social media censorship, political war between US president banning social networks. Tiny person on the laptop keyboard looking at the forbidden sign on the screen. Internet communication risk concept

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post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
May 18, 2022

Categorized
Censorship, Media, Social Media

Tagged
Bill Maher, Disinformation Governance Board, Elon Musk, Mark Steyn, Nina Jankowicz, Taylor Lorenz}

New U.S. Disinformation Board on Hold Amid Flak From Both Sides

_{Most current controversies are not clear divisions between True and Untrue or Right and Wrong. Government would merely reinforce the Establishment} _{Denyse O'Leary

May 18, 2022

5

Censorship, Media, Social Media}

If you’d blinked, you’d have missed it: The Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday paused a new and controversial board’s work on disinformation and accepted the resignation of its leader, capping weeks of concerns about impinging on free speech rights and at times frenzied conspiracy theories about the board itself… The Disinformation Governance Board’s director, Nina Jankowicz, wrote Wednesday that the board’s future was “uncertain,” according to a resignation letter obtained by The Associated Press. Nomaan Merchant and Amanda Seitz, “New ‘disinformation’ board paused amid free speech questions” at Associated Press (May 18, 2022) A recommendation as to whether the Board should continue will be offered, we are told, within 75 days. The Washington Post knows who to blame: “How Read More ›

Two cats hide under the blanket. Outside, the winter snow. The concept of home comfort, security, warmth

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
May 18, 2022

Categorized
Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Abstractions vs. signals, Cats (remembering other cats' names), Signals vs. abstractions}

Why Cats Can Remember Other Cats’ Names

_{University of Kyoto scientists found that they can indeed remember, provided they live in the same household} _{Denyse O'Leary

May 18, 2022

5

Natural Intelligence}

In a study of 48 cats living in private homes and pet cafés, scientists at Kyoto University in Japan determined that they can recognize the names humans give to them if they live in the same household: The scientists showed pet cats living in homes and felines living in “cat cafés” photos of cats they resided with to determine their reactions. The cats were then played an audio recording of their owners, or a researcher, calling out a name — either the name of the familiar cat in the photo or a fake name. Researchers discovered that pet cats spent more time looking at the image when the audio incorrectly identified a familiar cat than when the correct name was Read More ›

Business crisis manager stopping falling dominos from collapsing

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
May 17, 2022

Categorized
Censorship, Media, Social Media

Tagged
Brendan O'Neill, Elon Musk, Elon Musk (Twitter buy opposition), European Union (on Musk Twitter buy), Media (support for censorship), Project Veritas (Twitter buy leak), Siru Murugesan, Twitter}

Who Opposes Musk’s Proposed Twitter Takeover Deal?

_{Four groups to watch are Twitter employees, left-wing action coalitions, legacy media, and the European Union} _{Denyse O'Leary

May 17, 2022

7

Censorship, Media, Social Media}

First, the state of play: Elon Musk’s foray into buying Twitter remains on hold amid disputes about how much of Twitter is dominated by bot accounts. Musk believes that 20% of the accounts are spam. Spam bots on Twitter are automated accounts that can take actions like real humans, such as sending out tweets, following other users, as well as liking and retweeting other users’ posts. Such accounts can be programmed to try and drive traffic to a product or service as part of a commercial endeavor or spread content as part of a social or political influence operation. Tom Ozimek, “Musk Says Twitter Deal on Hold Over Spam Bots” at Epoch Times (May 13, 2022) That’s something Musk says Read More ›

Roboter auf Tastatur, Methapher für Chatbot / Socialbot, Algorithmen und künstliche Intelligenz

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
May 13, 2022

Categorized
Business and Finance, Social Media

Tagged
Elon Musk (and Twitter), Elon Musk (Canadian connections), Elon Musk (media hostility), Jacob Carpenter, Media (advocating censorship), Twitter (and Elon Musk), Twitterbots}

Musk’s Twitter Deal Is at Risk Amid Fierce Attacks on Him

_{Tarred as a privileged white South African, Musk moved to Canada at 17 to avoid serving in South Africa’s apartheid army} _{Denyse O'Leary

May 13, 2022

4

Business and Finance, Social Media}

Traditional media and many tech mavens are elated that Elon Musk’s Twitter deal is now shaky. It’s no secret that they were unhappy with it and with him. The New York Times launched an extraordinary attack on Musk on May 5, tweeting “Elon Musk grew up in elite white communities in South Africa, detached from apartheid’s atrocities and surrounded by anti-Black propaganda. He sees his takeover of Twitter as a free speech win but in his youth did not suffer the effects of misinformation.” In reality, Musk left for Canada at the age of 17, to avoid serving in the South African military, whose principal purpose was to oppress black South Africans. He had Canadian citizenship by way of his Read More ›

Close up of small caged colorful birds in pet store in morning sun

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
May 9, 2022

Categorized
Censorship, Global Technology

Tagged
Andrew McDiarmid, Elon Musk (and Twitter), Jacques Ellul, Pregnant man emoji, Twitter (and Elon Musk)}

Can Elon Musk Really Stop Big Tech From Controlling Us?

_{We usually don’t realize how far it has already gone in efforts to control our thinking} _{Denyse O'Leary

May 9, 2022

3

Censorship, Global Technology}

Think it doesn’t control you? Andrew McDiarmid can offer you some examples of pervasive efforts to control our thinking: It appeared in Apple’s iPhone software update this year, when a “pregnant man” emoji was quietly added to keyboards. It’s seen in Google’s new (and currently stalled) “inclusive language” feature, which autocorrects gendered terms like “landlord,” “policeman” or “housewife.” Andrew McDiarmid, “Big Tech is subtly controlling our lives—and we need to fight back” at New York Post (May 7, 2022) Surely, almost nobody on the planet, apart from small pressure groups, had asked for a “pregnant man” emoji. The concept has nothing whatever to do with the serious problems many pregnant women face worldwide. Landlord? Again, many people worldwide face problems Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
April 20, 2022

Categorized
Ethics, Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Animals (ethical sense), Frans de Waal (on chimpanzees and ethics), James Hutton}

Claim: Research Shows That Animals Have a Moral Sense

_{We are informed at Nautilus, the Templeton Foundation’s magazine, that “ It’s time to take moral emotion in animals seriously.” Really?} _{Denyse O'Leary

April 20, 2022

4

Ethics, Natural Intelligence}

Philosopher James Hutton starts out his article as a sort of a “trick.” He describes the animals he works with as if they were colleagues. Then, in paragraph four, he announces, “But there are a couple of important details about Amy and Sidney that you should know. The first is that they aren’t workers in any conventional sense, but participants in an experiment.” Coming to the point, they’re dogs. And anyone who had been reading carefully would realize that they were animals, probably dogs or horses. But now here is the supposed big revelation from the University of Vienna experiments Hutton describes: The first big idea is that the moral attitudes of human beings are thoroughly emotional in nature. Of Read More ›

Beautiful autumn tree with mushrooms and moss in forest

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
April 13, 2022

Categorized
Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Fungi (communications)}

Not Just Plants — Even Fungi Like Mushrooms — Talk To Each Other?

_{They are NOT judging us but they do have complex communications systems interacting with their environment} _{Denyse O'Leary

April 13, 2022

4

Natural Intelligence}

The patterns that fungi like mushrooms use to communicate are said to be “strikingly similar” to those of human speech. But how?: Fungi send electrical signals to one another through hyphae—long, filamentous tendrils that the organisms use to grow and explore. The Guardian reports that previous research shows that the number of electrical impulses traveling through hyphae, sometimes likened to neurons, increases when fungi encounter new sources of food, and that this suggests it’s possible that fungi use this “language” to let each other know about new food sources or injury. Natalia Mesa, “Can Mushrooms “Talk” to Each Other?” at The Scientist (April 6, 2022) The paper is open access. That would make fungi, one of the kingdoms of life, Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
April 9, 2022

Categorized
Biology, Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Associative learning (in plants), Habituation (in plants), Heliotropism, Memory (in plants), Mimosa pudica, Peter Rogers, Plants (communication), Plants (consciousness issue), Plants (memory), Venus Flytrap, Vernalization}

How Plants Talk When We’re Not Around

_{Some aspects of plant behavior can be studied in the same terms as animal or human behavior} _{Denyse O'Leary

April 9, 2022

6

Biology, Natural Intelligence}

One genuine surprise in recent decades has been the discovery that plants have nervous systems like animals and use some of the same compounds in communications — for example, TMAO to relieve stress and glutamate to speed transmission. Biologist Peter Rogers pointed out recently that the similarities may shed a bit of light on issues around anaesthesia. Surprisingly, it is possible to anesthetize a plant. The shameplant (Mimosa pudica) and the Venus flytrap demonstrated that: Thirty years after anesthesia debuted in the operating room, Claude Bernard, a French physiologist, demonstrated that the shameplant (Mimosa pudica), which bashfully folds into itself when touched, was unresponsive to touch after exposure to ether, a commonly used anesthetic. The plant also folds into itself Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
April 5, 2022

Categorized
Ethics, Natural Intelligence

Tagged
David P. Barash, David P. Barash (on worms and pain), Pain in animals, Richard Dawkins (on animal suffering), Sentience (in invertebrates), Suffering (in animals), Worms (and pain)}

Evolutionary Psychologist Argues That Worms Feel Pain. But How?

_{Wait. Barash’s hypothesis overlooks the fact that suffering is more than an alarm system. An alarm could be going off in an empty building} _{Denyse O'Leary

April 5, 2022

8

Ethics, Natural Intelligence}

A web site for fans of earthworms tackled the question recently: Yes, it is now accepted that worms feel pain – and that includes when they are cut in half. They do not anticipate pain or feel pain as an emotional response, however. They simply move in response to pain as a reflex response. They may curl up or move away, for example, from painful or negative stimuli. Aimen Mirza, “Do worms feel pain? (Can Earthworms Sense Painful Stimuli?)” at WORMMY (October 12, 2021) Possibly in line with the growing support for panpsychism in science, University of Washington evolutionary psychology professor David P. Barash, asks us to consider that worms do indeed feel pain in a deeper sense than an Read More ›

Two stingrays are swimming on the blue sea near the underwater rocks and white sand.

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
April 1, 2022

Categorized
Mathematics, Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Abstraction (and counting), Fish (and math), Rafael Núñez}

Did Researchers Teach Fish To “Do Math”?

_{Some test fish learned how to how to get food pellets but the difficulty, as so often, lies with interpretation} _{Denyse O'Leary

April 1, 2022

4

Mathematics, Natural Intelligence}

University of Bonn researchers think that they may have taught fish to count. They tested the fact that many life forms can note the difference in small quantities between “one more” and “one less,” at least up to five items. Not much work had been done on fish in this area so they decided to test eight freshwater stingrays and eight cichlids: All of the fish were taught to recognize blue as corresponding to “more” and yellow to “less.” The fish or stingrays entered an experimental arena where they saw a test stimulus: a card showing a set of geometric shapes (square, circle, triangle) in either yellow or blue. In a separate compartment of the tank, the fish were then Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
March 25, 2022

Categorized
Ethics, Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Crabs (emotion), Cruelty (and invertebrates), Decapods (emotion), How To Study Animal Minds (book), Infants (pain), Kristin Andrews}

Researchers Ask—Serious Question — Do Crabs Have Emotions?

_{Recent research has created some unexpected ethical problems for the seafood industry} _{Denyse O'Leary

March 25, 2022

4

Ethics, Natural Intelligence}

At one time, the question of whether crabs or squid had emotions would seem ridiculous. Dogs and cats have emotions but squid and crabs don’t. Right? But in recent decades, it has become evident that there is no straightforward evolutionary path to “smartness.” What about the ability to experience pain or emotion as a dog or cat would? “A London School of Economics (LSE) report commissioned by the U.K. government found there is strong enough evidence to conclude that decapod crustaceans and cephalopod molluscs are sentient,” says York University Professor and philosopher Kristin Andrews, the York Research Chair in Animal Minds, who is working with the LSE team. Andrews co-wrote an article published today in the journal Science, “The question Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
March 24, 2022

Categorized
Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Animal intelligence (factors), Birds (intelligence vs. reptiles), Reptiles (intelligence vs. birds)}

Are Birds Really Smarter Than Reptiles?

_{Scientists clash over how to measure animal intelligence: brain volume, brain organization, numbers of neurons…?} _{Denyse O'Leary

March 24, 2022

6

Natural Intelligence}

It used to be: Dog vs. cat, Who’s smarter? Now it’s Bird vs. reptile: Who’s smarter? Experts on the fascinating world of animal intelligence are locked in a debate over whether number of neurons or brain volume indicates intelligence (cognitive capacity): In previous work, [Pavel] Němec and colleagues showed that birds have high neuronal densities. “They basically compensate, with these densely packed neurons, [for] the fact that they have relatively small brains in absolute terms, but they have just as many neurons as mammals,” he says. But they didn’t know whether that was true of reptiles as well. In the new study, the researchers found that reptiles have very low neuronal densities, with an average neuron number 20 times lower Read More ›

Extreme magnification - Jumping spider portrait, front view

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
March 11, 2022

Categorized
Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience

Tagged
Betsy Mason, Brain size (impact), Bridge spiders, Christa Lesté-Lasserre, Dan Robitzski, Jumping spiders, Portia (jumping spider), Spiders (hunting in groups), Spiders (strategies)}

Spiders Are Smart; Be Glad They Are Small

_{Recent research has shed light on the intriguing strategies that spiders use to deceive other spiders — and prey in general} _{Denyse O'Leary

March 11, 2022

6

Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience}

Spiders, like octopuses, have eight legs. But they share something else as well — like octopuses, once we got around to studying them, they turned out to be much smarter than expected. What makes spiders even more unusual is that they are smart with very small brains: “There is this general idea that probably spiders are too small, that you need some kind of a critical mass of brain tissue to be able to perform complex behaviors,” says arachnologist and evolutionary biologist Dimitar Dimitrov of the University Museum of Bergen in Norway. “But I think spiders are one case where this general idea is challenged. Some small things are actually capable of doing very complex stuff.” Behaviors that can be Read More ›

Concept of accusation guilty person girl.

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
March 8, 2022

Categorized
Psychology, Social Media

Tagged
Andrew Mahon, Cancel Culture (and science), Cancel Culture (its roots), Contagion (and Cancel Culture), COVID-19 (and Cancel Culture), Emma Camp, Frank Herbert, Groupthink (and Cancel Culture), Julie Overbaugh, Justin Trudeau (and Cancel Culture), Michael Egnor (on René Girard), mob psychology, Obscurity (and Cancel Culture), René Girard, Scapegoat (in Cancel Culture)}

Why Is Cancel Culture Such a Big Part of Our Lives Today?

_{To understand the Twitter mob’s destruction of lives and careers, it’s essential to address the immense power of groupthink} _{Denyse O'Leary

March 8, 2022

7

Psychology, Social Media}

Just in time for International Women’s Day, Emma Camp, a female student at the University of Virginia, reports experiencing a wave of hostility when she suggested that non-Indian women could legitimately criticize the practice of suttee, by which a woman burns to death on her husband’s funeral pyre, voluntarily or otherwise. The reaction on Twitter suggests that Cancel Culture is its lifeblood. Meanwhile, virologist Julie Overbaugh, a National Academy of Sciences member who has made many contributions to the study of viruses, has been forced out of her teaching and research leadership positions because she had worn a Michael Jackson costume to a Halloween “King of Pop” party in 2009. Curiously, although one of her cited offences in connection with Read More ›