Now what? Dr. Cait Newport and others of the University of Oxford and the University of Queensland have experimentally demonstrated that archerfish can recognize human faces. The fish demonstrate their ability by spitting at a specific image among other images—as many as 44 such images. I’m not kidding. You can find the study in Scientific Reports. “I spit in your face” is no longer pejorative.
Tropical archerfish catch their prey by lying just below the water’s surface and then spitting to knock a nearby insect into the water. One might assume that the tiny brain of an archerfish is incapable of deep thought. As humans, we like to think of ourselves as “deep thinkers” whose discernment is both unequaled and unparalleled by “lesser organisms.”
Now, here’s the what. If I asked you to recognize a fish face among other fish faces, could you do it? Think about your ability to recognize faces of people from different countries. Think of “they all look the same” to me. Think of such generalizing in the context of a simple fish brain that can distinguish one human face from another. And the archerfish is doing the recognizing with a tiny brain observing an image refracted by water. The archerfish also identifies not only a member of a different species, but also a member of a different phylum. Come on! What do fish and humans have that is similar save a backbone and a body with a head at one end and a butt at the other? Yet, here is a simple organism capable of doing something you might have difficulty doing with members of your own species.
When we don’t see people as individuals, our supposed complex brains don’t match the ability of an archerfish’s comparatively simple brain.
Tropical archerfish catch their prey by lying just below the water’s surface and then spitting to knock a nearby insect into the water. One might assume that the tiny brain of an archerfish is incapable of deep thought. As humans, we like to think of ourselves as “deep thinkers” whose discernment is both unequaled and unparalleled by “lesser organisms.”
Now, here’s the what. If I asked you to recognize a fish face among other fish faces, could you do it? Think about your ability to recognize faces of people from different countries. Think of “they all look the same” to me. Think of such generalizing in the context of a simple fish brain that can distinguish one human face from another. And the archerfish is doing the recognizing with a tiny brain observing an image refracted by water. The archerfish also identifies not only a member of a different species, but also a member of a different phylum. Come on! What do fish and humans have that is similar save a backbone and a body with a head at one end and a butt at the other? Yet, here is a simple organism capable of doing something you might have difficulty doing with members of your own species.
When we don’t see people as individuals, our supposed complex brains don’t match the ability of an archerfish’s comparatively simple brain.
RSS Feed