Entry 1663 — Birds of Paradise
A friend sent me this link and I thought it interesting enough to interrupt my latest outburst of super-genius with today: Birds of Paradise.
At first I thought, “Wow, this may be the first species capable of sensitivity to aesthetic variation besides ours, despite the amazing smallness of their nervous systems!” At first that seemed neat to me. Then I realized that it contradicted my theory of human sensitivity to boredom, which makes them desire aesthetic variation. I couldn’t see how the complicated mechanisms I’d hypothesized for that could fit in a birdbrain. Ergo, I now propose that Mother Nature is simply experimenting–what’s going on in natural-selection-in-progress. But because it’s taking place in a rain forest cut off (I gather) from most of the world, the birds are protected from normal competition, so can take a long time letting the females of the species, and the forest, weather–and, now, human beings (who will probably let continuing variety be selected as they have done with orchids) select the fittest featheration to go with.
The birds aren’t necessarily reacting to variation (although some birds can, I now recall, apparently react to auditory variation . . .), but to different shapes and colors–and, perhaps, size. In due course, if this is the case, they would (without interference from human beings) have chosen some fairly standard kind of tail, with the males with the most colorful, and/or biggest, passing on their genes.
To amplify: in more usual circumstances, a male coming up with an antenna with a bell on the top of it, or whatever, might be more easy to sight by predators, or have a little more trouble escaping because the thing would hit things as he took flight; but here, there apparently are few or no avian predators, so any drawbacks any given variation results in will have to be excessive to have a negative Darwinian effect on a bird.
Note: I had trouble with my speakers while watching the film, so missed most of the commentary. I therefore may have repeated what was said–or missed something said that would refute something, or everything I said. The main thing, though, is to enjoy the film–although, I of course hope my comments, right or wrong, will have some entertainment value.)
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