The Bio-Physics of Bird Flight
Starling Murmuration. One of Nature’s most astounding phenomenon, is also one of its least understood.
It truly is awe inspiring to watch a murmuration of hundreds if not thousands of starlings move in unison as if it is a single entity, in what seems to be a sporadic change of velocity.
In a recent study of this uncanny phenomenon, scientist have postulated that its underlying mechanism is more closely related to the world of fringe physics than to biology.
The movement of two starlings in the flock seems to be almost simultaneous, even when they are separated by hundreds of other starlings. It almost seems as if the flock behaves as a network in which information travels in no time at all.
According to recent computational modeling , what best describes this is something named scale-free correlation,and is also used to describe the process in which a metal is magnetized, as well as the formation of avalanches.
In other words, it seems that this biological system is poised at criticality, and therefor capable of extremely effective reaction to any perturbations.
The implication of this may be that there are presently unknown universal laws which govern certain biological systems in all sorts of orders of magnitude, from the starlings to neural networks.
Reference:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1012.2242
Can such phenomena be considered as circumstantial evidence for animal group souls, as posited by ancient mystery traditions?
I'm not sure. What do you mean by 'souls'?
Underlying non-physical intelligence, somehow they are all in communication vis a vis their flight patterns... was just speculating.
Forgive me, but I'm still not sure I understand.
If it's 'non physical', does it interact in any way with the natural world (aka reality)?
If so, why would you consider it 'non physical'?
If it doesn't interact with the natural world, why would you speculate it's existence in the first place? based on what?
Thank you for taking the time to answer, I appreciate it.
Speculation true, in the sense that such could not be read on a meter and must by logic be cognised in the functional imaginatory processes available to an intelligent consciousness such as ours, though the ability to conceive of such possibilities is not necessarily proof of their reality.
However, there is circumstantial evidence to allow for a hypothesis, such as the very fact that birds murmurate in such a fascinating manner.
This could be thought of in the Goethean method of training observation and thought, such as Goethe did with his Metamorphosis of Plants conceptualisation where observation of natural phenomena allows one to build a larger picture of natural functions -- in his case the archetypal plant -- those functions not readily available to the discursive mind, which seeks to apply the principles of primary qualities (Locke) to the processes giving rise to the secondary qualities, yet ends up following Kant and renders both primary and secondary qualities to subjectivity, . However, that is merely a philosophical stance and not a decisive conclusion. And clearly I disagree :)
It's good mental exercise to speculate on higher order functions of organic processes based on patterns and relationships, and my experiences indicate to me that there are non-material energies interacting with the material world. Like life, which my philosophical approach considers prior to material processes.
What do you think the interactive process is allowing flocks these complex coordinated flight patterns? Thanks for the discussion.
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Keep up the great work @sifodyas
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Hi! This post has a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of 12.4 and reading ease of 46%. This puts the writing level on par with academic journals.