On Mon, Aug 25, 2008 at 12:52 PM, Vladimir Nesov <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > The word "because" was misplaced. Cats hunt mice because they were > designed to, and they were designed to, because it's adaptive. And the adaption they have evolved in to, uses a pleasure process as a motivator. Saying > that a particular cat instance hunts because it feels good is not very > explanatory, like saying that it hunts because such is its nature or > because the laws of physics drive the cat physical configuration > through the hunting dynamics. Not at all. It defines the process by drives a cat to hunt, and also to practice - ie - "play" hunting. This is opposed to hunting due to reflex, like, say, a venus flytrap. I am reminded of a possibly apocryphal story about picasso: -------------- A woman asks Picasso to draw something for her on a napkin. He puts down a few lines, and says "That will be $10,000." "What!" says the woman, "That only took you five seconds to draw." "No, that took me 40 years to draw." ------------- Cats has evolved to see the process as a goal or reward in itself, over and above the requirements for food: If cats just hunted because they were hungry, they would never spend their downtime during kittenhood practicing and watching other cats hunt, and wouldn't be any good at hunting. And the result has many more advantages than simply optimising it's hunting strategies: it has evolved a cat that bonds with it's fellow kittens, learns to cooperate, and ultimately, becomes a better hunter because it sees the process of hunting as a game. Jonathan El-Bizri ------------------------------------------- agi Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=111637683-c8fa51 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
