Comment by helterskelter
9 hours ago
Crows in country will wait for a newborn deer to be left alone in a field by their mothers shortly after birth to peck the baby's eyes out so it dies and the crow can eat it later. My neighbor had told me about this happening, and maybe a month later I saw a fawn with its eyes pecked out shortly after it had died. The doe just sat at the edge of the field by it all night. So sad, but really smart of the crows.
Crows have also been known to alert predators like wolves to easy prey so they can pick the remains.
They also do this to lambs, they're smart but evil
> smart but evil
Sadly I have yet to see evidence that something can be smart without being evil.
the evil here seems to be being a predator, which for the doe it would be reasonable to say the predator is evil, but examining the natural order of things from outside, as a human observing the doe, the fawn, and the crows, that is a pretty weird judgement to make. The predator has evolved to eat the prey, if that is evil then nature is evil or if you like, whatever created nature.
I glanced at this and moved on but then my brain did a kind of record scratch on this comment.
Great question does intelligence require selfishness / evil?
I’m gonna think about this a bit, but my knee jerk was to (violently) disagree with this but I don’t know why.
3 replies →
Speak for yourself.
1 reply →
second degree planning involving third party means very high social modeling, fascinating