RE: Do you ever doubt your atheism?
August 17, 2014 at 10:26 am
(This post was last modified: August 17, 2014 at 10:36 am by The Grand Nudger.)
Meet the humble Dodder Vine, Cascuta Europea as shown below
Interestingly, this vine is incapable of producing it's own nutrients. It's what we in the biz call an obligate parasite. The seedlings have roughly 72 hours after germination to find a host plant or they die. Perhaps even more interestingly, they seem to prefer particular hosts more than others. Tomatos are a favorite (and that's why they're a favorite of mine). Perhaps even more interestingly, they have been shown, both in the field and under lab conditions, to consistently "choose" a favored host rather than a quicker, easier host. They locate these choice cuts by means of chemical signatures in green leaf volatiles (GLVs). They will even choose a synthetic alternative (distilled GLV) over the actual host from which those GLV are distilled if the concentration of GLV is higher in the synthetic, or the actual host plant is inhibited from producing them (or the vine inhibited from detecting them). Let me stress this, because it can;t be overstated. They have a 72 hour death clock....and will actively pass up a food source if they detect a favored host, utilizing their built up nutrients and phototropism to spiral out until they find whatever it is they were "looking" for. Sometimes......this causes their death. More often than not, it leads to them locating and exploiting a much better food source.
They make choices (or what we can only conceive of as mechanically identical to choices), responding to environmental stimuli - gambling with data. All of this without any "thought" to speak of (or at least no mechanism that we would traditionally associate with thought) - and it works.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuscuta
![[Image: 1280px-Cuscuta_europaea_bgiu.jpg]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=upload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fthumb%2F3%2F33%2FCuscuta_europaea_bgiu.jpg%2F1280px-Cuscuta_europaea_bgiu.jpg)
Interestingly, this vine is incapable of producing it's own nutrients. It's what we in the biz call an obligate parasite. The seedlings have roughly 72 hours after germination to find a host plant or they die. Perhaps even more interestingly, they seem to prefer particular hosts more than others. Tomatos are a favorite (and that's why they're a favorite of mine). Perhaps even more interestingly, they have been shown, both in the field and under lab conditions, to consistently "choose" a favored host rather than a quicker, easier host. They locate these choice cuts by means of chemical signatures in green leaf volatiles (GLVs). They will even choose a synthetic alternative (distilled GLV) over the actual host from which those GLV are distilled if the concentration of GLV is higher in the synthetic, or the actual host plant is inhibited from producing them (or the vine inhibited from detecting them). Let me stress this, because it can;t be overstated. They have a 72 hour death clock....and will actively pass up a food source if they detect a favored host, utilizing their built up nutrients and phototropism to spiral out until they find whatever it is they were "looking" for. Sometimes......this causes their death. More often than not, it leads to them locating and exploiting a much better food source.
They make choices (or what we can only conceive of as mechanically identical to choices), responding to environmental stimuli - gambling with data. All of this without any "thought" to speak of (or at least no mechanism that we would traditionally associate with thought) - and it works.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuscuta
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
