Re: Bird Brains

[dbensen <dbensen@gotnet.net>]

>>      All the same, we may be comparing apples and oranges. Think of a
PlayStation vs. a desktop. The PlayStation is a cheap machine which is
really, really good at graphics but pretty lousy at anything else. The
desktop is equal or maybe somewhat inferior in graphics performance
depending on various hardware, but it does a lot more besides, like
crashing Windows (or, if you prefer, Mac OS). I think most people would say
that overall the desktop is a more powerful machine. Considering that birds
come from a long line of visually oriented critters- unlike primates, which
come from nocturnal things- perhaps it makes sense that they are really
good at processing visual information. The Sony PlayStations of the animal
kingdom? It may be that they do some things really well, but have serious
deficiencies we haven't yet recognized. The same may be true of humans-
when it comes to scents, our dogs must think we're idiots. As for
dinosaurs- well, I'd guess that parrots are somewhat unusual among birds
and birds are somewhat unusual among dinosaurs. But they do say that we
have a lot to learn and that some highly sophisticated behaviors can appear
in animals with relatively small brains.<<

I like that argument.  Perhaps that "thing" that these parrots are good at to 
the
detriment of other skills is the same "thing" that humans are good at.  After 
all,
ur-humans and African grays share similar lifestyles.  They are both omnivores
(although the parrots are more herbivorous than humans) with a tendancy towards
fruits and nuts as foods of choice.  They are highly social creatures with very
well developed sight (which is used for display and categorization) and hearing
(which is used for communication) they both live in the raptidly changing and 
3-D
environment of a jungle/savanna (although the parrots live more in the jungle 
and
less in the savanna than humans do).
    I think that this thread is getting a little too far away from dinosaurs 
and so
may be doomed to, um, death (you thought I was going to say "extinction", didn't
you?) and so I won't raise any more questions.  Suffice it to say that, while 
the
parrots arn't quite on par with adult humans, they are definatly one of the
"upliftable" species (for any of you who have read David Brin).  With just a 
little
bit of genetic engineering (or maybe even a few dozen generations of selective
breeding) we might get some really great bird brains.

Dan