Posted on 02/18/2006 2:42:48 PM PST by T-Bird45
My Jack Russells are pretty smart sometimes.
Yup.. and the boys of summer make physics calculations while standing in the batter's box.
They do calculus and urinate on the rug. They are geniuses all right..
Ping!
But it's OK as long as they take the optimal path to do so, right?
Yep, this is fabulous science. I would have never known that dogs know how to fetch a thrown ball with accuracy. I'll bet flying birds use thermals with a precision similar to mathematical models showing how to best soar through the air; dolphins cut through the water in a manner reducable to numbers that demonstrate that they use the least amount of muscular power for the amount of forward motion; and wolves run down prey reflecting a near-perfect relationship between energy used to maintain the chase and finally killing the quarry. Wow.
I suspect it's the same with the dog. The fallacy in the writer's theory is that calculus came first and the behavior follows. In truth, calculus is simply a tool used to describe the behavior that already existed.
Very funny topic, I must say. I wouldn't be at all surprised if there is, indeed, some mathematical process going on in the dog's brain. But then, we'll never know for sure, will we? If I could venture a guess, I would have to say that it is some sort of successive approximation process.
duh, the idiot has it the wrong way around...the mathematical formula closely matches the optimal way the dog, Elvis performs this particular task!
The dog is doing this intuitively. There is no "dV/dT" calculation going on, the dog is simply estimating (based on experience) where the ball (or Frisby, or stick) is going to be at a particular time, and speeds up, slows, or turns to meet the object at that particular point. As the dog has its eye on the object, it continues to adjust the estimate to meet the anticipated contact point at the optimal time.
Human beings do the same thing when trying to beat out a red light.
I hate it when my "bread" doesn't integrate. Keeps me up for hours... sometimes with gas.
How do you apply the statistical variable on the probability of a cop being near enough to observe the results and act accordingly? :-)
I can catagorically state that there is NO process going on in my dog's brain. He's like a male, human teenager.... sleep, eat, defecate (he doesn't think about the Other Subject, he's been repaired).
The catz, on the other hand, try to do math. Most times, they're pretty good. Integration, summation, correlation.... but they sometimes fail spectacularly. The other morning, one of them pulled all of the previous night's washed dishes down on her head when she snagged the bar-mop (dish towel) with a claw.
And sometimes, they calculate the amount they roll around asleep incorrectly, and roll off of the ironing board, landing wide awake, and looking around to see who saw...
A dog doesn't know enough to care who saw. He doesn't attempt mathmatics.
8>)
/johnny
They told me blue heelers were smart, but mine is almost 4 and barely reads.
One shouldn't ascribe to mathematics that which instinct and common sense can achieve in 1/10000 of the time.
Must be a different kind of calculus than my dog used; the one who did not know how to use the doggie door until after I got on my hands and knees and modeled it for him a few times and finally pushed him through it.
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