Psychologists have examined the workings of the pigeon brain and claim the “brute force” of the bird’s learning shares similarities with artificial intelligence. That’s the conclusion of a new paper from University of Iowa scientists.
In their experiment, researchers gave the pigeons complex categorization tests that high-level thinking, such as using logic or reasoning, would not aid in solving. Instead, the pigeons, by virtue of exhaustive trial and error, eventually were able to memorize enough scenarios in the test to reach nearly 70% accuracy.
The researchers equate the pigeons’ repetitive, trial-and-error approach to artificial intelligence. Computers employ the same basic methodology, the researchers contend, being “taught” how to identify patterns and objects easily recognized by humans. Granted, computers, because of their enormous memory and storage power, far surpass anything pigeon brains would be able to conjure.
Still, the basic process of making associations—considered a ‘lower-level’ thinking technique—is the same between the test-taking pigeons and the latest AI advances.
We know that many birds migrate for thousands of miles, but the question of how they navigate so well and on such tight seasonal schedules has baffled science for generations. In recent years, studies, have indicated that the secret may lie in a special sensitivity to Earth’s magnetic field. It has not been entirely clear, however, just how birds are able to read that field, though it has been speculated that it may work for them something like a compass works for humans.
A recent pair of European studies argued that there is a strange protein in the birds’ eyes which makes it possible for them to actually see, at some other level of their vision, the planet’s magnetic field. Biologists at Sweden’s University of Lund, who studied zebra finches, and at Germany’s Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg, who studied Robins, found that a protein called cryptochrome, linked to circadian rhythms, can facilitate something called ‘magnetoreception’.
Alternative science researchers, in one school of thought, have long believed that ‘magnetoreception’ is a faculty available to many species, including humans. Some have even theorized that so-called extra-sensory perception (ESP) is related to magnetic sensitivity. The research of renowned British biologist Rupert Sheldrake, however, suggests that, to explain ESP, something deeper may be needed. Clear evidence has been compiled by Sheldrake suggesting that many domesticated animals, including dogs and cats, know when their owners are coming home, and that many people know who is about to telephone them. These, and many similar phenomena would seem to demand a better explanation than magnetic sensitivity alone.
https://now.uiowa.edu/2023/02/ui-study-pigeons-use-same-basic-learning-process-ai
AR #99
The Future of Scientific Genius
by J. Douglas Kenyon, Publisher’s Letter
