Chapter 8
Biomorphic Technologies
8.1 Uniquely Human
What makes us unique? Consciousness is an ill-defined entity, as vague as mind or
soul. Intelligence is something more concrete; although it also has various definitions, it can ostensibly even be measured. Hence, the Intelligence Quotient, or IQ.
Dolphins, whales, elephants, cephalopods, even ravens and parrots are reputed to
be highly intelligent – try to administer them an IQ test (of the kind you pass with
flying colors if you had learned determinants)! David Stenhouse (1974) defined intelligence as adaptively variable behavior within the lifetime of the individual. This
greatly widens the circle of intelligent creatures: certainly, all vertebrates are included, and not only them, for they move, and they learn how to get food and avoid
trouble. Anthony Trewavas (2014) argues that plants are intelligent as well, notwithstanding their vegetative state and sessile way of life, after modifying the above
definition to adaptively variable growth and development during the lifetime of the
individual. Plants do indeed exhibit adaptive plasticity but the notions of learning,
memory, and individuality have to be shrewdly extended to be applicable to plants.
Still more leeway with consciousness: it is up to the personal taste of a neurologist
or a philosopher how far to extend it down from humanity.
Intelligent as they might be without brains, plants are able only to grow and reproduce. Whales have larger brains than us (though this does not necessarily make
them cleverer), but they made a retrograde evolutionary choice when they left dry
land and got rid of limbs to emulate fish: technology cannot develop under water
and without appendages fit for manipulating things. They, as well as other sensible
mammals, cannot be denied consciousness. Octopuses are dexterous, perhaps one
day after we are extinct they will venture out onto the terra firma where they will
discover fire and start making tools, or creatures like them on another planet will
do it. The elephant’s trunk is a useful implement though not handy enough (pun
intended), but elephants are satisfied with a vegetarian diet and deter predators by
their bulk, so they don’t need any gadgets. Ants are too small to handle fire without
burning themselves. Monkeys’ grasping hands with long flexible fingers plus vul117
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
L. Pismen, Morphogenesis Deconstructed, The Frontiers Collection,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36814-2_8
Biomorphic Technologies
8.1 Uniquely Human
What makes us unique? Consciousness is an ill-defined entity, as vague as mind or
soul. Intelligence is something more concrete; although it also has various definitions, it can ostensibly even be measured. Hence, the Intelligence Quotient, or IQ.
Dolphins, whales, elephants, cephalopods, even ravens and parrots are reputed to
be highly intelligent – try to administer them an IQ test (of the kind you pass with
flying colors if you had learned determinants)! David Stenhouse (1974) defined intelligence as adaptively variable behavior within the lifetime of the individual. This
greatly widens the circle of intelligent creatures: certainly, all vertebrates are included, and not only them, for they move, and they learn how to get food and avoid
trouble. Anthony Trewavas (2014) argues that plants are intelligent as well, notwithstanding their vegetative state and sessile way of life, after modifying the above
definition to adaptively variable growth and development during the lifetime of the
individual. Plants do indeed exhibit adaptive plasticity but the notions of learning,
memory, and individuality have to be shrewdly extended to be applicable to plants.
Still more leeway with consciousness: it is up to the personal taste of a neurologist
or a philosopher how far to extend it down from humanity.
Intelligent as they might be without brains, plants are able only to grow and reproduce. Whales have larger brains than us (though this does not necessarily make
them cleverer), but they made a retrograde evolutionary choice when they left dry
land and got rid of limbs to emulate fish: technology cannot develop under water
and without appendages fit for manipulating things. They, as well as other sensible
mammals, cannot be denied consciousness. Octopuses are dexterous, perhaps one
day after we are extinct they will venture out onto the terra firma where they will
discover fire and start making tools, or creatures like them on another planet will
do it. The elephant’s trunk is a useful implement though not handy enough (pun
intended), but elephants are satisfied with a vegetarian diet and deter predators by
their bulk, so they don’t need any gadgets. Ants are too small to handle fire without
burning themselves. Monkeys’ grasping hands with long flexible fingers plus vul117
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
L. Pismen, Morphogenesis Deconstructed, The Frontiers Collection,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36814-2_8