tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2974406546323301344.post7302631273132907022..comments2023-04-08T06:06:13.055-07:00Comments on Notes from the Pens: The Damselfly and Phylogenetic RelationshipsAya Katzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07830585801297506770noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2974406546323301344.post-30687511174729031932015-05-23T20:24:31.172-07:002015-05-23T20:24:31.172-07:00The daisy might also be interested in which of us ...The daisy might also be interested in which of us are better pollinators.Aya Katzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07830585801297506770noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2974406546323301344.post-9580716329999219502015-05-23T20:22:30.345-07:002015-05-23T20:22:30.345-07:00You bring up an interesting side issue in the inve...You bring up an interesting side issue in the investigation of phylogenetic relationships: that if we don't know anything about the salient features to look for, we might actually have trouble seeing that an individual member of a species is related to himself. Not being able to recognize someone you have seen before because she appears to look like everybody else is that kind of problem.<br /><br />The music example is like the language problem. It is hard to get someone to transcribe a language he's never heard before, because he doesn't know which sounds are the same and which are different.<br />Aya Katzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07830585801297506770noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2974406546323301344.post-45174275148548190602015-05-23T12:50:38.436-07:002015-05-23T12:50:38.436-07:00Also, consider that for the daisy, if it were cogn...Also, consider that for the daisy, if it were cognizant of creatures around it, the relevant difference between damselfly and the human might only be one of size, since what would be cognitively relevant is how likely one of them is to smash the daisy…Arle Lommelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08729238091550049166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2974406546323301344.post-42135632216721521592015-05-23T12:41:01.010-07:002015-05-23T12:41:01.010-07:00Familiarity certainly plays a role, as does simila...Familiarity certainly plays a role, as does similarity to self. I once heard a man from India who was in the U.S. for graduate school talking about how he tried to fit in culturally, so he asked an Anglo-American girl on a date. He went to confirm details with her later and found he simply could not tell her from any of the other girls around and he didn't know which one he had asked out. Of course he'd never had this trouble with Indian women he knew.<br /><br />While I've never had that sort of experience, I think of the experience of being exposed to a sort of music one has never heard before and the ways in which it can be baffling because it isn't like what we're used to: we simply don't know what to hear or how to hear it. I bought a CD of Tibetan music once and found I simply could not listen to the religious processional music: it sounded like random noise to me. I tried a few times to listen to it but I never got past the perception of noise.<br /><br />Similarly, if you went to most people and showed them different kinds of bagpipes, they might notice some superficial features, but they would have no basis for differentiating between them in a meaningful way. I specialize in bagpipes, however, so I can look at some types and tell you where they came from within a 20-km radius and even, in some instances, tell who the maker is.<br /><br />But if I turn to a saxophone, I could tell you absolutely nothing, even though a kid who went to junior high band class could probably tell you far more. I am simply unfamiliar with saxophones (other than considering them the mullet of the music world).Arle Lommelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08729238091550049166noreply@blogger.com