Benji

“The “modern synthesis” in evolutionary biology brought the tools of population genetics to track the process of natural selection; now the “extended synthesis” adds the insight that organism and environment influence each other.”
― Deborah M Gordon, The Ecology of Collective Behavior

“The causes of the ant’s behavior are woven into the relations link- ing the ant, the place it is searching, the other ants, the seeds, and the humidity in a web that widens as we learn more. This amounts to a more elaborate and detailed version of Aristotle’s idea that the animal is expressing its nature. The important point is that its nature is not inside it, but instead in how it reacts to and changes its situation.
The view of evolution outlined in this chapter is that the causes and heredity of traits, such as behavior, are generated by the relation of inside and outside, not contained in a packet of instructions carried inside. This perspective on the evolution of collective behavior is emerging in every field of biology and underlies the hypothesis that the dynamics of collective behavior reflect adaptation to the dynamics of the environment in which the behavior evolves. To summarize: The dynamics of collective behavior are generated by how individuals interact to adjust collective outcomes to changing conditions.”
― Deborah M Gordon, The Ecology of Collective Behavior

“Regions of the brain differ in how tightly function is linked to particular cells. For cognitive tasks, f MRI tests on different people, or on the same people at different times, often show that particular functions are performed by groups of neurons but that the locations change; thus, the neurons engaged in cognitive tasks tend to be scattered across the brain.41 Differences in the fidelity of neurons to par- ticular tasks depend on function; the activity of particular neurons varies more for cognitive functions than for more ancestral functions such as vision and olfaction.42 Thus, neurons, like ants, switch tasks or functions, and interactions among groups of neurons regulate their activity.”
― Deborah M Gordon, The Ecology of Collective Behavior

“Although some animals are considered to be solitary rather than group-living, they can also be considered to engage in collective behavior. Even the state of aloneness is itself a relation with others. We know this from our own behavior. People who are alone are not removed from the social fabric; avoidance is a form of relation, and the use of language, even in solitude, is a social activity.”
― Deborah M Gordon, The Ecology of Collective Behavior