A CONSIDERATION OF NATURAL INTELLIGENCE

Despite the human extra brain capacity, it appears evolution may have provided some animals with an innate propensity for calculations that may on occasion exceed human mathematical calculations. At least, that is what Professor Tim Penning from Hope College in Holland, Michigan is investigating. He believes natural selection has equipped his dog with a cerebral computer which exceeds human calculations of an ideal path for retrieval.

After watching his corgi Elvis chase a tennis ball across the beach and shallow water, Penning began to notice that Elvis seemed to be taking an extraordinarily efficient path to the ball. Given that the path involved two different media, sand and water, and two corresponding modes of movement, running and swimming, it appeared to Penning that Elvis instinctively knew how to take in a number of different variables and instantly deduce the quickest means of securing the ball.

What Penning particularly noticed was how Elvis would neither run all the way down the beach to the ball and then swim, nor take a straight route through the water, but would run part of the way and swim the rest. Penning then measured Elvis' speeds on land and water and employed them to calculate his idea path to the ball.

Penning reported in the May 2004 issue of The College Mathematics Journal that after three hours of throwing the ball and measuring Elvis' path and speed, then charting the data, he found that in 31 of the 35 cases, the path taken was remarkably close to the one he had calculated. Although he measured each trial and plotted the results on a graph, because of a number of variables that Penning was unable to measure accurately such as wind, waves, and fatigue, it is possible that Elvis's path was actually better than the calculated ideal path.

Penning stated that Elvis' behavior is an example of the uncanny way in which nature often finds optimal solutions. It could be a consequence of natural selection, which gives a slight but consequential advantage to those animals that exhibit better judgment.

Penning provides some pause for thought. Given that Elvis is not distracted by extra demands on time and attention such as holiday shopping and other variables that humans face, is it possible that there are times when the conclusion Penning suggests may be correct?