How insects like bumblebees do so much with tiny brains
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Re: How insects like bumblebees do so much with tiny brains
#2Maybe the real question is 'why can we do so little with our giant brains?'
Re: How insects like bumblebees do so much with tiny brains
#3Maybe the real question is 'why can we do so little with our giant brains?'
Maybe something along the lines of "our brains would overheat" - there's a small temperature window in which proteins won't denature, it takes k T log 2 joules to erase one bit of information (Landauer's principle), and our brain uses around 20 Watts of power.
Maybe tin foil hats make good heatsinks..
Interestingly enough there is some evidence that the Gibbs free energy of ketone metabolism is more thermodynamically efficient than glucose in the brain (c.f. Dr. Richard Veech's work). You can measure a lower temperature gradient between the tongue temperature and the brain's.
*edit: s/Beech/Veech..
Re: How insects like bumblebees do so much with tiny brains
#4Maybe the real question is 'why can we do so little with our giant brains?'
Give bumblebees radio, tv, reddit, hackernews, facebook and whatsapp. Pretty soon they too will be doing pretty much nothing...
Also, give them money and the idea that they will have to amass this stack pile paper before they die, instead of gathering the stupid nectar...
Re: How insects like bumblebees do so much with tiny brains
#5Maybe the real question is 'why can we do so little with our giant brains?'
Maybe something along the lines of "our brains would overheat" - there's a small temperature window in which proteins won't denature, it takes k T log 2 joules to erase one bit of information (Landauer's principle), and our brain uses around 20 Watts of power. Maybe tin foil hats make good heatsinks.. Interestingly enough there is some evidence that the Gibbs free energy of ketone metabolism is more thermodynamically…
I was not expecting such a useful and interesting answer. Thanks!
Re: How insects like bumblebees do so much with tiny brains
#6The article mentions lots of different insect skills such as spatial representation, route finding, pattern recognition, predation, etc, and then says that "Neurons act a little like wires, carrying electrical signals from one part of the brain to another. They are a biological version of the circuit board in a computer".
After reading the article, I was impressed by the insects, not by the BBC explainers.
Re: How insects like bumblebees do so much with tiny brains
#7Maybe the real question is 'why can we do so little with our giant brains?'
Give bumblebees radio, tv, reddit, hackernews, facebook and whatsapp. Pretty soon they too will be doing pretty much nothing... Also, give them money and the idea that they will have to amass this stack pile paper before they die, instead of gathering the stupid nectar...
> Also, give them money and the idea that they will have to amass this stack pile paper before they die, instead of gathering the stupid nectar...
Are you serious? You can pick up your mobile phone and arrange to have nectar come to you in any amount you require (as long as you have the money to afford it).
In fact, to a honeybee, nectar is pretty much exactly analogous to money.
Re: How insects like bumblebees do so much with tiny brains
#8Maybe the real question is 'why can we do so little with our giant brains?'
Maybe something along the lines of "our brains would overheat" - there's a small temperature window in which proteins won't denature, it takes k T log 2 joules to erase one bit of information (Landauer's principle), and our brain uses around 20 Watts of power. Maybe tin foil hats make good heatsinks.. Interestingly enough there is some evidence that the Gibbs free energy of ketone metabolism is more thermodynamically…
That's interesting indeed - is there any chance there's a connection between ketone metabolism being more efficient and 'hungry intelligence'? http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/magazine/10section1C.t-1.h...
Re: How insects like bumblebees do so much with tiny brains
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Give bumblebees radio, tv, reddit, hackernews, facebook and whatsapp. Pretty soon they too will be doing pretty much nothing... Also, give them money and the idea that they will have to amass this stack pile paper before they die, instead of gathering the stupid nectar...
> Also, give them money and the idea that they will have to amass this stack pile paper before they die, instead of gathering the stupid nectar... Are you serious? You can pick up your mobile phone and arrange to have nectar come to you in any amount you require (as long as you have the money to afford it). In fact, to a honeybee, nectar is pretty much exactly analogous to money.
>In fact, to a honeybee, nectar is pretty much exactly analogous to money.
Can you or your newborn eat money?
Re: How insects like bumblebees do so much with tiny brains
#10The article mentions lots of different insect skills such as spatial representation, route finding, pattern recognition, predation, etc, and then says that "Neurons act a little like wires, carrying electrical signals from one part of the brain to another. They are a biological version of the circuit board in a computer". After reading the article, I was impressed by the insects, not by the BBC explainers.
Why? That analogy is so widely recognised and accepted that electronic engineers/neuroscientists are experimenting on computer circuit boards to assess the understanding of neuroscience.
"It does so by way of neuroscience’s favourite analogy: comparing the brain to a computer. Like brains, computers process information by shuffling electricity around complicated circuits."
http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/2171497...