Re: "The Evolution of Agency" by Michael Tomasello

Arkalen wrote:

On 06/04/2024 13:14, LDagget wrote:

John Harshman wrote:
 

On 4/5/24 2:13 PM, Arkalen wrote:

On 05/04/2024 16:02, John Harshman wrote:

>

 big snip

Are you aware of this paper on a hypothesis for the evolution of neurons ? It's possible you do as it does include a link between digestive molecules and neurotransmitters.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/tops.12461

As for an advantage to using nervous systems for control systems an obvious one seems to be the ability to link up different functions of the organisms in arbitrary ways instead of function-constrained ones. I don't think hormonal systems can do that as flexibly but I'm happy to be proved wrong ("can induce mating behavior with hormones" definitely isn't sufficient).

apologies for the huge snip but your excellent post remains elsewhere.
Part of the reason for the snip is the system I'm using is poor at
handling large posts. I also am disinclined towards many interposed
comments. And in particular, I haven't read the book, you have, so
my further comments get too meta. Suffice that your points are well
taken and I won't quibble (more) without having read the book.
Beyond that, I looked into the cite above. Haven't read it but will.
Glanced through the refs, most are past the time I paid much attention
to the gut/brain connection. I did note a ref to a paper I plan to
look up. It could help me catch up. Kaelberer, M. M., & Bohorquez, D. V. (2018). The now and then of gut-brain signaling.
Brain Research,1693, 192–196. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2018.03.027
Thanks for the leads.
As a final thought, that he considered ants might induce me to read
the book. My knowledge there is at best superficial but I like them
as a model organism to decode chemical _effectors_ of behavior.