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You are viewing a draft of the book entitled "Patterns – The Art, Soul, and Science of Beholding Nature". It is currently being published as an eBook.There are some significant changes in the eBook that are not in this draft. You may purchase the eBook here for $9.95.
Some of the ideas in the eBook are contained in posts at my new Patterns In Nature Blog. You are encouraged to visit this blog site. If you press the "Like" button shown below, your Facebook page will provide you with short notifications and summaries of new blog posts as they become available.
When one talks about patterns in nature, one usually thinks about patterns that are perceived by our visual, auditory, or olfactory senses. Nonetheless, behavioral patterns associated with phenomena such as altruism, maternal protection, foraging, flight, or migration are just as real and beg description and explanation with a fervor equal to the more tangible patterns that we physically sense.
Go to the beach and watch a seagull glide along the shoreline. In particular, watch the movement of his tail feathers as they act as an elevator and twist slightly to help in turns. How did the bird learn to do these behaviors? How do gray whales, birds, and butterflies develop the knowledge and the urge to migrate? How do dolphins and humpback whales learn to create the bubble nets that herd fish schools into tight formations so they can easily be eaten? How do ants acquire their foraging behavior ?
Some behavioral and intelligence patterns can be explained down to a certain level. But in most cases, the driving forces behind these patterns are unknown. At some level, the veracity of explanation ceases and speculation takes over. Explanations are unavailable because we simply don’t know. Usually, any potential explanation is “tagged” with a single word – “instinct”. Instinct is a handy “pigeonhole” for mentally filing something we know little about.
In addition, there is a tendency to describe animal behaviors and intelligence in human terms. Anthropomorphism is a common and flawed way that one attributes human motivation, characteristics, or behavior to inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena.
This web page avoids explaining causes for behavior or intelligence. One premise is offered, however. If intelligent behavior can be defined as the capacity to acquire and apply knowledge, especially toward a purposeful goal, we state that intelligence is not reserved just for human beings. There are many examples of intelligent behavior by animals other than humans. Here, we offer a few examples of behavioral and intelligence patterns, acknowledge them as patterns, and leave the speculations to others. We also offer a descriptive list of proposed explanations for behaviors without assigning these ideas to any given behavior.
As examples of behavioral patterns we offer:
- Altruism
- Foraging in ant colonies
- Flocking, schooling, and herding
- Gray whale migrations
- Predation by marine mammals using bubble nets
We offer some common explanations for behavioral patterns:
- Instinct
- Genetics
- Epigenetics
- Culture
- Memes
