[HN Gopher] Arthropod Intelligence? The Case for Portia (2020)
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       Arthropod Intelligence? The Case for Portia (2020)
        
       Author : YeGoblynQueenne
       Score  : 51 points
       Date   : 2024-03-12 17:39 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.frontiersin.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.frontiersin.org)
        
       | digging wrote:
       | Fairly well known on this site, but for those interested, some
       | really good sci-fi authors inspired by Portia's brilliance
       | include Peter Watts and Adrian Tchaikovsky.
        
         | marinhero wrote:
         | I loved Children of Time. Made me appreciate multi-generational
         | stories for the first time. Also, the ants!
        
           | digging wrote:
           | If you haven't read it, the Octavia Butler trilogy called
           | Lilith's Brood is a great multi-generational story as well.
        
         | 0xE1337DAD wrote:
         | Children of Time is my favorite sci fi novel. The sequel isn't
         | bad either, the 3rd one gets a little weird, but i thought the
         | argument about "sentience" != "intelligence" was an interesting
         | one. This is a prevailing theme in Blindsight by Peter Watts
         | too, but I felt the technobabble really took away from the
         | theme and distracted from story.
        
           | MiguelHudnandez wrote:
           | This reminded me of Blindsight as well. The fact that
           | intelligence does not have to present in a way that's
           | familiar to us is important to keep in mind.
           | 
           | Thank you for bringing up Children of Time... off to go get
           | it.
        
             | 7thaccount wrote:
             | One reason why I wonder if communications with
             | extraterrestrials will ever be as simple as we hope.
             | 
             | We struggle to communicate with our own species and other
             | creatures that are related to us.
        
               | throwanem wrote:
               | "If a lion could speak, we could not understand him."
        
             | dudinax wrote:
             | And of course the classic of Sci-Fi of unusual
             | intelligence: Solaris by Stanislaw Lem.
        
           | duskwuff wrote:
           | > This is a prevailing theme in Blindsight by Peter Watts too
           | 
           | Portia is explicitly referenced in the sequel _Echopraxia_.
        
             | gpderetta wrote:
             | Indeed, but I think parent was referring to "sentience" !=
             | "intelligence" .
        
           | nozzlegear wrote:
           | The third book of the series was my favorite thanks to those
           | two corvid characters (the sentience versus intelligence
           | being alluded to, for those who haven't read the book). Their
           | little monologue (duologue? actually, monologue?) to Doctor
           | Kern about sentience at the end of the book was so
           | interesting.
        
           | stanac wrote:
           | Third book is a bit weird, but I enjoyed the second book more
           | than the first one. I don't want to spoil the book for anyone
           | but new intelligent species were shocking and more
           | interesting than spiders. Now I have have to check what
           | Tchaikovsky will publish this year.
        
             | 0xE1337DAD wrote:
             | I've been going through his whole filmography and haven't
             | run into anything I've disliked yet. Much of it is in an
             | audiobook format on your local library app.
        
         | tibbydudeza wrote:
         | Awesome book from Adrian - intelligent spiders using ants for
         | computing.
        
           | UncleOxidant wrote:
           | The spiders also used the ants as cameras.
        
       | gumby wrote:
       | Hexapodia as the key insight
       | 
       | -- Twirlip of the Mists
        
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