| > I can sorta understand stimulus causing them to start making a web (sorta like stimulating a mammary can cause lactation) - but how do it 'know' to use a radial pattern rather then ah-hoc mess the black widows on my porch make? The 'ad-hoc' pattern seems like it would be more 'likely' then a nice pattern? Overall, I guess it just seems like a rather complex pattern/behavior? My guess: It "just feels right". In the beginning (?), the species didn't have any "preference" and just did whatever. Some species cut the pizza in circles (as in, cutting out a circle from inside the pizza, leaving a donut-shaped pizza), others cut squares, others cut weird shapes, etc. All over the place. Over time, those predisposed to cutting the pizza in a straight line, from border to border, passing through the center, began to survive slightly longer than the rest (for some unknown reason), becoming the dominant predisposition. To anyone born since then, it just felt right to cut the pizza that way. Not passing through the center of the pizza was just weird. And stopping a cut midway, without going all the way through, was also just weird. At that point the amount of cuts still varied though, so it was all over the place. Some cut it in half, other made 2 cuts (4 slices) but they were in ugly 20° angles (so 2 huge slices and 2 small slices), others made hundreds of cuts so each piece was tiny and was annoying to eat, stuff like that. Over time, those who preferred to cut the pizza in 90° angles started to survive slightly longer, and over time became the dominant predisposition. And so on and so on. With these learnings it was becoming easier for people to make pizza ("find food"). Pizza sizes increased, and so did the amount of people sharing a single pizza. Making it easier to attract others, and share a pizza with them. Meeting more people makes it slightly more likely to find a life partner. Time passed, same old song and dance. Now all pieces must be symmetrical. It was the most fair way to share. Not doing it this way meant the one doing the cuts was evil and must be avoided. Current situation: Most people cut the pizza in 8 equal-ish slices because it just feels right to do it that way. Those who don't do it that way might still reproduce, but are slightly more likely to be avoided because they are weirdos. They are also slightly less able to get food, because nobody wants to share their pizza with those weirdos, so they are slightly more likely to starve due to being unable to "attract" food. In that parallel universe, someone named 224hcem asks: > But how do they "know" to cut the pizza in 8 equal slices rather than the ad-hoc mess the teenagers next door make with their microwaved pizza? Overall it's way more effort to try to make all pieces nice and equal, and the movements have to be more precise meaning the brain calculations are more complex compared to just winging it. |
Thanks