“More neurons = intelligence” always felt like an oversimplification.
If that were true, we wouldn’t be surprised by birds or octopuses anymore.
Bird brains (2023)
31–40 of 230 posts
Re: Bird brains (2023)
#32Given parrots can talk, there must be a neuron count that activates language (assuming anatomy allows it), similar to LLM parameter count.
Parrots can't "talk". They just mimick noises they've heard before
This reminds me of being told dogs don't feel emotions by someone who never owned one. Parrots most definitely can talk. Their language is extremely primitive but if you've ever been around a grey and it's owner for some time, they definitely talk to each other. The parrot will readily communicate observations and desires.
Re: Bird brains (2023)
#33bird brains are a die shrink of mammalian brains.
Re: Bird brains (2023)
#34I have to imagine that given birds are descendants of dinosaurs, which evolved quite a long time ago, they've had a lot more time to optimize certain things.
Whatever humans are descended from existed during the time of the dinosaurs
If you go a bit farther back, we all ultimately come from the same lizard-like amniotes, newly emerged onto land from amphibious ancestors. It just took dinosaurs and mammals a little bit to evolve out of the "four-legged monster with teeth" body type.
Re: Bird brains (2023)
#35This gives a whole new meaning to the term “stochastic parrots” for LLMs :)
Re: Bird brains (2023)
#36[flagged]
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Re: Bird brains (2023)
#37Adding to this a chart of neuron count [1] [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animals_by_number_of_n...
Interesting... I would have thought Octopi have more total neurons than dogs, given their problem-solving capabilities. Now I wonder if the decentralized organization / hub and spoke model octopi alone exhibit offers some advantage when it comes to problem-solving
Fun fact: octopus does not come from Latin, which would give the plural an -i ending. It comes from Greek, which means that if you want to be particularly correct about your plurals, then the plural is octopodes.
Re: Bird brains (2023)
#38Given parrots can talk, there must be a neuron count that activates language (assuming anatomy allows it), similar to LLM parameter count.
Given parrots eat their own poop ( https://lafeber.com/pet-birds/questions/parrots-eating-poop/ ), there must be a neuron count/density that activates self-poop eating (assuming anatomy allows it), similar to LLM parameter count.
Dogs do that too.
Re: Bird brains (2023)
#39Re: Bird brains (2023)
#40Given parrots can talk, there must be a neuron count that activates language (assuming anatomy allows it), similar to LLM parameter count.
Given parrots eat their own poop ( https://lafeber.com/pet-birds/questions/parrots-eating-poop/ ), there must be a neuron count/density that activates self-poop eating (assuming anatomy allows it), similar to LLM parameter count.
My dogs eat poop, and therefore are also like LLMs.
Your hypothesis has therefore been peer-reviewed.