Comments on: Pat my head? http://mcgees.org/2007/12/12/pat-my-head/ Website of Joshua McGee Mon, 06 Feb 2012 23:58:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Bob Mike http://mcgees.org/2007/12/12/pat-my-head/comment-page-1/#comment-42470 Bob Mike Thu, 13 Dec 2007 17:25:45 +0000 http://mcgees.org/2007/12/12/pat-my-head/#comment-42470 That's not funny. My father is a whale. <I>YOU NEVER EVEN THOUGHT ABOUT THAT, DID YOU?!?!</I> That’s not funny. My father is a whale.

YOU NEVER EVEN THOUGHT ABOUT THAT, DID YOU?!?!

]]> By: Joshua <i>(Site Owner)</i> http://mcgees.org/2007/12/12/pat-my-head/comment-page-1/#comment-42469 Joshua (Site Owner) Thu, 13 Dec 2007 16:43:26 +0000 http://mcgees.org/2007/12/12/pat-my-head/#comment-42469 <p> Did you just call me a whale, asshole? Huh? Huh? </p> Did you just call me a whale, asshole?  Huh?  Huh?

]]> By: Dave (Site Brother) http://mcgees.org/2007/12/12/pat-my-head/comment-page-1/#comment-42466 Dave (Site Brother) Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:18:08 +0000 http://mcgees.org/2007/12/12/pat-my-head/#comment-42466 That was my favorite part of the interview, as well. Also, you know that people only pen missives on this site when you mention their relatives. That was my favorite part of the interview, as well.

Also, you know that people only pen missives on this site when you mention their relatives.

]]> By: Joshua <i>(Site Owner)</i> http://mcgees.org/2007/12/12/pat-my-head/comment-page-1/#comment-42455 Joshua (Site Owner) Thu, 13 Dec 2007 00:43:27 +0000 http://mcgees.org/2007/12/12/pat-my-head/#comment-42455 <p> OK, a preëmptive strike against my readers who are right now, presumably, penning missives chastising me for anthropomorphizing. </p> <p> If I were trying to program a large social animal such as a whale efficiently, I'd put a basic control structure such as the following in place: </p> <p> 1. If you encounter something novel in the water, investigate it. It might be useful.<br> 2. If you or a conspecific are attacked by the novelty, fear future instances of it.<br> 3. If you fear something, attack it or flee from at, as deemed appropriate.<br> 4. If you see a conspecific attack or flee from something, fear future instances of it. </p> <p> Then all we need for a cascade of learning to fear humans is one whale to escape an attack, and whales to reorganize into different pods nonzero times. </p> <p> A side effect of this is that, as incidents with whaling boats decrease, whale attrition begins to erode the distributed heuristics of the species. Once a significant enough number of whales die, the curiosity routine will re-emerge as dominant. </p> OK, a preëmptive strike against my readers who are right now, presumably, penning missives chastising me for anthropomorphizing.

If I were trying to program a large social animal such as a whale efficiently, I’d put a basic control structure such as the following in place:

1. If you encounter something novel in the water, investigate it.  It might be useful.
2. If you or a conspecific are attacked by the novelty, fear future instances of it.
3. If you fear something, attack it or flee from at, as deemed appropriate.
4. If you see a conspecific attack or flee from something, fear future instances of it.

Then all we need for a cascade of learning to fear humans is one whale to escape an attack, and whales to reorganize into different pods nonzero times.

A side effect of this is that, as incidents with whaling boats decrease, whale attrition begins to erode the distributed heuristics of the species.  Once a significant enough number of whales die, the curiosity routine will re-emerge as dominant.

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