Brain to Body

Again, posted at the RD site:

There is something to the brain to body mass ratio, but I tend to be careful there. It is understandable if the cost to an organism of supporting each cell is about the same, and the value (in getting genes into successive generations) of what the brain does is about the same for all individual animals. That is not always the case. (Also, it is hard to imagine a simple rule is going to work from the scale of the Orca on one end down to the Portia spider one the other.)

For bird intelligence there are also different things of value. Sometimes it is flying and navigation skills, or visual processing, or auditory processing. I would be tempted to teach Betty to pick locks, but if she escaped and taught that to other crows, I might be charged with a crime against humanity.

A different kind of intelligence is shown in this Attenborough Bower Bird video.

What I have found in the CAG parrot is less focus on tool using and much more on emotional reading and interaction. Some people find this very compelling. After the death of the famous Alex, folks have been using the web to actively trade anecdotal clues about these birds. I have been collecting some of these, and the impression that there is some kind of consciousness in there is very strong.