Saturday, 24 March 2018

#482 Life as a pool table - part 5

The concept of responsibility
In part 4, we saw how a dust ball could acquire a new feature, such as the ability to see in colour, which might not be that significant on its own. However, the moment that another part of the dust ball happens to react to the new feature in a way that helps the dust ball, the new feature becomes part of a process that is more likely to be inherited. The dust ball now has some ability to respond to the things it encounters. In other words, it has acquired some new response-ability.

Limbs and other senses
Limbs. Let's give the dust ball some limbs. A baby dust ball is, by chance, made with a tiny bit that sticks out, which happens to aid its movement in a way that makes food and mating more likely. Thousands of years later, almost all dust balls have limbs and one of them happens to get affected by a reaction that happens to a part of the dust ball that's connected to its eye and the dust ball acquires the ability to move the limb in response to what it sees, in a way that is helpful to it. Over a vast period of time, the dust ball develops four new senses in the exact same way that it developed its sight. It also develops a second eye, which gives it the benefit of depth perception.

The concept of dust robots
The continued improvement and acquisition of features gets us to a point where our dust balls are no longer dust balls at all. They're dust robots. They've become dynamic shapes that are superbly suited to sensing and moving towards things that are good for them while avoiding the perils of their environment. For the purpose of this thought experiment, we might now consider their physical development complete and move on to their mental development.

5 comments

Fizzfan said...

I’m a bit thrilled they’ve made the leap to being dust robots honing in on all things good for them.
Now comes the mental development.......oooops, immediately I’m thinking of an awareness of SELF.
Bracing myself for a few Daleks.


Cute news today...it’s National Puppy Day.
Dogs love us so much they yawn when we do and change their facial expressions to match ours.
I love animals and although I love cats (especially big wild ones) best, I would like to have a dog. Trouble is they’re a bit too needy for my liking.
Watching Big Cats About The House on BBC2. About looking after and rearing baby big cats.....yeah, all sorts of things appeal to me about doing that.
Also, apparently watching a nature programme increases empathy and well being as much as mindfulness and meditation.

Profound Familiarity said...

That's awesome.

What, so regular peeps are getting leopards and lynxes as pets or something? Is it legal? you'd definitely want to make sure you kept them well-fed.

Happy National Puppy Day

Fizzfan said...

Kind of a relief that the big kitty cat in question is actually in the house of an Aussie guy who has a lot of experience with them and has come across to England to help out at a sanctuary.
He’s rearing a panther that’s been rejected by its Mum in his house. It’s poorly at the moment so until next weeks episode I don’t know what will happen.

Brings back memories of when I first had my cat years ago. One of my favourites was opening my eyes up one morning and there she was, nose to nose with me.
I think if you get them at a crucial stage of their development they kind of treat you as their Mum.

Happy Puppy Day indeed. Spring is in the air. S’all Good.

Profound Familiarity said...

A panther :)

Ok well perhaps you'll keep me updated on how that goes.

Waking nose to nose with a regular domestic cat, I could deal with but I'm not sure I'd want a panther in my bed.

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