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From: jsol@bbncca.ARPA (Jon Solomon)
Newsgroups: net.ai
Subject: Re: RE:intelligence and adaptability
Message-ID: <366@bbncca.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 1-Dec-83 20:50:11 EST
Article-I.D.: bbncca.366
Posted: Thu Dec  1 20:50:11 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 2-Dec-83 23:51:22 EST
References: <400@ihuxn.UUCP> <732@hou5d.UUCP>
Organization: Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, Ma.
Lines: 28

I don't think we can safely say that adaptability is unique to the human
race. Certainly animals would not have survived on evolution alone.

Let's take an example. I step on an anthill. What do the ants do? They build
it right back up. What if I build a house on their hill? What will they do?
Why, they will attempt to find *SOME* way out of their bind. I call that
adaptability.

Another example. Cockroaches exist in almost every part of the country,
under almost every sort of environment. I recently moved from the New York
area, to the Los Angeles area, and then to the Boston/Cambridge area. I took
some New York roaches to LA and some LA roaches to Boston. At no point did
they have any trouble adapting to the world around them.

I postulate therefore that adaptability is part of the low level "animal
instinct" part of the being.

That doesn't mean that adaptability skills don't play a role in intelligent
thought. They most certainly do. We humans just have more adapting to do
than most of the lower animals do.


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