Kevin Aylward wrote:

> Anon. wrote:
> 
>>Kevin Aylward wrote:
>>
>>>Anon. wrote:
> 
> 
>>>>>
>>>>>That was only one particular illustration.
>>>>
>>>>But a more general point is still valid - only a small proportion of
>>>>species are able to learn, and as importantly, pass that learning on
>>>>to others.
>>>
>>>
>>>What specific *animals* don't learn? How successful can such animals
>>>deal with being chased by a man with a gun?
>>>
>>>All the ones I can think of learn, e.g. cats, dogs, parrots,
>>>dolphins, lions, chimps etc...
>>>
>>
>>Try thinking of things like insects.
> 
> 
> I am not interested in insects. I don't care that insects may or may not
> require memes. Insects are already well explained by existing theory. I
> am specifically addressing higher level animals adaptability to *all*
> environments.
> 
Ah.  You should have made that clear at the start of the thread.  Your 
initial claim seemed to be a claim about all of life, not just the small 
minority that can learn and communicate that learning.

Bob

-- 
Bob O'Hara

Rolf Nevanlinna Institute
P.O. Box 4 (Yliopistonkatu 5)
FIN-00014 University of Helsinki
Finland
Telephone: +358-9-191 23743
Mobile: +358 50 599 0540
Fax:  +358-9-191 22 779
WWW:  http://www.RNI.Helsinki.FI/~boh/
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