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^"permissions":^"read":ӶӺ,"update":ӶӺ,"delete":ӶӺ,"admin":ӶӺ°,"user":^"id":6,"name":"Sarah Oberbichler"°,"id":"Qf5egtu32j","ranges":Ӷ^"start":"/divӶ3Ӻ/divӶ4Ӻ/divӶ1Ӻ/pӶ21Ӻ","startOffset":0,"end":"/divӶ3Ӻ/divӶ4Ӻ/divӶ1Ӻ/pӶ24Ӻ","endOffset":1426°Ӻ,"quote":"Having described an organism as an hierarchical system of feedback loops, in each of which certain activities have been “inductively” selected as effective, it is not too difficult to envisage situations where the accidental addition of a new element could lead to a novel function. Wherever a number of individuals of the same species share, for instance a hunting area, the following episode, as seen by an observer, may not be unlikely: an individual pursuing a prey does not get to make the kill because another individual has come upon the scene and successfully killed the prey. If no already acquired behavior patterns prevent them from sharing the prey, both individuals will feed on it. If we translate this sequence of events into the terms of the feedback model, we get somewhat different operational sequences for the two individuals. For the second one, a “normal” well-established cycle has run off: an internal disturbance, “hunger”, has led to certain activities and they have been effective once more, in that they resulted in eating behavior which successfully eliminated the original disturbance. For the first individual, however, there is an anomaly. The episode begins with “hunger” as originating disturbance, which leads to the well-established sequence of activities, but the “normal” course of the sequence is impeded, some of the activities are frustrated. Yet their result—eating behavior that eliminates the original disturbance—is nevertheless achieved. Since it is a basic feature of a learning feedback system that it records its activities and consequent changes of disturbances, the anomalous activity chain will be recorded as a thoroughly effective one. In place the of the impeded activities, however, the record will contain some elements that have never before been associated with the activity-chain that is controlled by the “hunger” disturbance. These novel elements, for instance (in observer language), “approach and making contact with a conspecific individual”, may already have been coordinated as components of some other activity-chain. If the episode recurs and repeatedly leads to the elimination of the “hunger” disturbance, it must become an operational alternative to the original activity chain controlled by the nutritional feedback loop. Preying in pairs and groups will be the result, and with this, the necessary conditions for the development of cooperative preying will have been created. On the other hand, if in the same episode, the first individual is prevented not only from making the kill, but also from feeding on the prey, the sequence of activities will be recorded as a “failure”. In this case the novel elements, i.e., the activities involving the conspecific, are associated with the failure and will lead to avoidance or to competitive behavior in the future.\nIn both cases, what has happened is similar to the transfer of the twig-stripping activity of the chimpanzee’s ordinary feeding cycle to his “termite-fishing” cycle. The transfer in our hypothetical case, if anything, would be more probable, because the perceptual item involved (i.e., another organism of the species) would certainly have been coordinated into a recognizable object very early in the organism’s ontogenic development, and is perhaps already well established as an object in its own right. By this I mean that a cluster of sensory signals, first coordinated as a recurrent pattern in the context of a specific activity, has been recognized in the context of other activity-cycles and has thus come much closer to becoming an externalized “permanent object”.\nSimilar episodes will happen in defense against predators. Whenever one individual acts and, by this activity, reduces not only his own disturbance but also the disturbance of other individuals, this will inevitably lead to the formation of relatively cohesive groups, because the reduction of disturbance in these very simple situations will be reciprocal for some time. Organism A today happens to be instrumental for B, and tomorrow B is instrumental for A. Once this begins to take place, it is highly probable that particularly efficient individuals are more often the actor who reduces the common disturbance. Thus they become the focus of the group’s cohesion—with all the implications for the gradual development of dominance and patterns of social equilibration.Ӷ31Ӻ\nAt the same time, however, the situation of reciprocal instrumentality has the potential of developing into collaboration. Its realization on a scale greater than the accidental synchronization and integration of the actions of two individuals, may well require a drastic change in the environment that suddenly creates a serious and persistent disturbance in many or all the individuals. Among humans, crises that dramatically increase collaborative efforts are a commonplace. Theoretically, it would seem extremely probable that, if environmental pressure rises for a species that has already evolved the operational mechanisms I have outlined, the cooperative situations will become more frequent and they will quickly come to involve more than two individuals. And once that stage has been reached, it will not take long before some form of communication will arise.Ӷ32Ӻ It would be communication by means of ad hoc signs, similar perhaps to the idiosyncratic signs invented by the monkeys in the Mason and Hollis experiment. In the natural environment it is, however, likely that such ad hoc signs will be extremely difficult to discriminate and recognize for the human observer.Ӷ33Ӻ But whatever their individual form and mode of transmission, they would be genuine communicatory signs, because operationally they have the same purposive instrumental function and status as the “termite-fishing” tool of the chimpanzee.","highlights":Ӷ^"jQuery321084609571877238732":^°°,^"jQuery321084609571877238732":^°°,^"jQuery321084609571877238732":^°°,^"jQuery321084609571877238732":^°°,^"jQuery321084609571877238732":^°°,^"jQuery321084609571877238732":^°°,^"jQuery321084609571877238732":^°°,^"jQuery321084609571877238732":^°°,^"jQuery321084609571877238732":^°°,^"jQuery321084609571877238732":^°°,^"jQuery321084609571877238732":^°°Ӻ,"text":"","order":"mw-content-text","category":"Argumentation2","data_creacio":1568061477667°
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