Often we wonder what distinguishes humans from other animals. Measurement and optimization. Do other species measure, and optimize? Others use tools, but do they optimize?
> When an insect or spider crawling along the leaves contacts a hair, the trap prepares to close, snapping shut only if a second contact occurs within approximately twenty seconds of the first strike.
> ...
> The mechanism is so highly specialized that it can distinguish between living prey and non-prey stimuli, such as falling raindrops; two trigger hairs must be touched in succession within 20 seconds of each other or one hair touched twice in rapid succession, whereupon the lobes of the trap will snap shut, typically in about one-tenth of a second.
> ...
> Most plants accumulate starch by day, then metabolize it at a fixed rate during night time. However, if the onset of darkness is unusually early, Arabidopsis thaliana reduces its use of starch by an amount that effectively requires division. wever, there are alternative explanations, such as feedback control by sensing the amount of soluble sugars left. As of 2015, open questions remain.
Ants, of course, famously optimize. I think most creatures optimize somehow, I mean doing things wastefully is way to end up with an energy deficit, aka starve.
Humans have an interesting tendency to bump themselves out of local optima, via instincts called “boredom” and “curiosity.” These are not strictly human traits I think, but humans tend to get bored more often than other creatures, tend to accumulate large amount of resources which allow them to follow their curiosity a bit further, and are very good at communicating the results of this boredom.
>> Do other species measure, and optimize? Others use tools, but do they optimize?
They all do. Think of locomotion. Most every animal that can move has a few different ways of doing it. We can walk, or run. An eagle can fly direct or take a circuitous route between updrafts. A whale has sprint mode or easy cruise mode. We are all constantly optimizing how we move in order to minimize expended energy to accomplish a given task.
How would you define optimization? As in time management? Making some process take less effort perhaps? I’d say my cat fits the bill. She seems to have a better sense of time and keeping to her schedule than I do. She has also figured out many optimizations for her life that make sense to her. For example her path routing ability while running full speed is pretty amazing, she manages to figure out routes that keep her on a vector enabling full tilt acceleration vs turning and walking around furniture like us humans do with our poorly optimize walking.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_arithmetic
> When an insect or spider crawling along the leaves contacts a hair, the trap prepares to close, snapping shut only if a second contact occurs within approximately twenty seconds of the first strike.
> ...
> The mechanism is so highly specialized that it can distinguish between living prey and non-prey stimuli, such as falling raindrops; two trigger hairs must be touched in succession within 20 seconds of each other or one hair touched twice in rapid succession, whereupon the lobes of the trap will snap shut, typically in about one-tenth of a second.
> ...
> Most plants accumulate starch by day, then metabolize it at a fixed rate during night time. However, if the onset of darkness is unusually early, Arabidopsis thaliana reduces its use of starch by an amount that effectively requires division. wever, there are alternative explanations, such as feedback control by sensing the amount of soluble sugars left. As of 2015, open questions remain.