harnad@elbereth.rutgers.edu (Stevan Harnad) (11/16/88)
Below is the abstract of two forthcoming target articles to appear in
Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS), an international,
interdisciplinary journal providing Open Peer Commentary on important
and controversial current research in the biobehavioral and cognitive
sciences. To be considered as a commentator or to suggest other appropriate
commentators, please send email to (specifying the article in question):
harnad@confidence.princeton.edu or write to:
BBS, 20 Nassau Street, #240, Princeton NJ 08542 [tel: 609-921-7771]
____________________________________________________________________
(1) ARE SPECIES INTELLIGENT?
Jonathan Schull
Haverford College
Haverford PA 19041
KEYWORDS: animal behavior; artificial intelligence; cognitive science;
evolution; intelligence; natural selection; parallel distributed
processing; punctuated equilibria; species
Plant and animal species are information-processing entities of such
complexity, integration and adaptive competence that it may be
scientifically fruitful to consider them intelligent. This
is suggested by the analogy between learning (in organisms) and
evolution (in species) and by recent developments in evolutionary
science, psychology and cognitive science. Species are now described
as spatiotemporally localized individuals in an expanded hierarchy of
biological entities. Intentional and cognitive abilities are now
ascribed to animal, human and artificial intelligence systems which
process information adaptively and exhibit problem solving abilities.
The structural and functional similarities between such species are
extensive, although these are usually obscured by
population-genetic metaphors (which have nonetheless contributed much
to our understanding of evolution).
In this target article I use Sewell Wright's notion of the "adaptive
landscape" to compare the performance of evolving species with those
of intelligent organisms. With regard to their adaptive achievements
and the kinds of processes by which they are attained, biological
species compare very favorably with intelligent animals in virtue of
interactions between populations and their environments, between
ontogeny and phylogeny, and between natural, interdemic, and species
selection. Whatever the answer, addressing the question of whether
species are intelligent could help refine our concepts of intelligence
and of species and could open new lines of empirical and theoretical
inquiry in many disciplines.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(2) GENETIC SIMILARITY THEORY
J. Philippe Rushton
Psychology Department
University of Western Ontario
KEYWORDS: Sociobiology; Inclusive Fitness; Kin Selection; Assortative
Mating; Dyad Formation; Ethnocentrism; Friendship; Behavior Genetics;
Altruism; Group Selection
A new thoery of attraction and liking based on kin selection suggests
that people detect genetic similarity in others in order to give
preferential treatment to those who are most similar to themselves.
Empirical and theoretical support comes from (1) the inclusive-fitness
theory of altruism, (2) kin-recognition studies in animals raised
apart, (3) assortative mating studies, (4) favoritism in families,
(5) selective similarity among friends, and (6) ethnocentrism.
Specific tests of the theory indicate that (a) sexually interacting
couples who produce a child together are genetically more similar to
each other in terms of blood antigens than they are to either sexually
interacting couples who fail to produce a child together or to
randomly paired couples from the same sample; (b) similarity between
marriage partners is greatest on the more genetically influenced sets
of anthropometric, cognitive, and personality characteristics; (c)
after the death of a child, parental grief intensity is correlated
with the child's similarity to the parent; (d) long term male
friendship pairs are more similar to each other in blood antigens than
they are to random dyads from the same sample; and (e) similarity
among best friends is greatest on the more genetically influenced sets
of attitudinal, personality and anthropometric characteristics.
Possible mechanisms are discussed. These findings may provide a
biological basis for ethnocentrism and group selection.
--
Stevan Harnad INTERNET: harnad@confidence.princeton.edu harnad@princeton.edu
srh@flash.bellcore.com harnad@elbereth.rutgers.edu harnad@princeton.uucp
BITNET: harnad@pucc.bitnet CSNET: harnad%mind.princeton.edu@relay.cs.net
(609)-921-7771