hi,

On 14/12/2017 13:54, Bald Eagle wrote:
> jr <cre### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
>> imagine then you're the controller/observer of two mazes, one contains a
>> mould which is on its second maze, the other a human, naked no tools,
>> also on their second maze.  previous maze layout was different.
>> observing their behaviour, how could you tell one is (supposedly)
>> "intelligent" while the other operates on "instinct"?
> Well, you see, ...
> Humans have evolved to use tools - which requires them to capitalize on wealth
> (amassed food and resources) to leverage the free-time that wealth buys to
> design and make those tools.  The conditions of your comparison are artificial.

well yes, quite.  to both.

thing is, when you're the subject of study you don't get to choose.

> A human would elevated himself above the maze, use a mirror, or a drone, or a
> satellite photo.

humour me then.  and, to make it "easier" we could imagine
exo-biologists from Sirius II conducting the experiment, they obtained
one slime mould and one human and can configure two identical but for
scale mazes, the floor is uniformly 5m (human scale) wide, the walls 20m
high, an air condition distributes the smell of an appetising food
everywhere equally.  the human is naked and has no tools but if it pulls
out a hair and sticks it (with spit) to the wall that'll hold (akin to
slime mould depositing chemical marker compound), but no mirrors, etc.
as before, second run for both.

how could the Sirians tell the difference between intelligent and
"instinctual" behaviour?

> Slime molds are still blindly oozing through mazes millions of years later...

which means /they/ manage.  :-)


regards, jr.

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