Saturday, September 17, 2016

About the Expression of Personality in Fish

There are behaviors we associate with herd animals such as doing predictable things and herd animals don't always run in herds but there wasn't any Rockhouse thought about whether there are differences in behavior between when animals are in their herds directly or are only hanging around near by.  It seems there are difference and this behavior extends all the way through fish.  (Science Daily:  Fish lose their unique personality when they go to 'school')

The personality the fish loses is how much risk it is willing to undertake.  When it's alone, a higher risk level is acceptable; when it's with the other fish, risk-taking is subdued and staying cool with the other fish takes precedence until the threat passes.  When it's gone, they revert to their normal loose swimming and their behavior changes to increased risk-taking just as before.


The sweeping picture of social organization from top to bottom is interesting since humans do it too.  The more tightly we pack together, the more we squeeze our little minds into passivity and Election 2016 just nails that thought; their minds shut down months ago.  How much humans need troupe versus solitary is your guess but the fact the behavior exists is the interesting aspect.  That even fish do it is astounding.


Anthropomorphizing is when you see some type of fish behavior and observe the analogous case in humans so this may lead you to believe the fish is acting human.  The fish is just acting like a fish but it's interesting to observe the similarities.

The fish broke away from the Evolutionary Pipeline millions of years ago to start becoming what it is today.  Millions of years later humans broke off to start becoming what we are.  That there's even a tiny resemblance even functionally is remarkable but they're not acting human, they couldn't possibly.


They sure seem to act human, don't they.  When we panic, we tend to cluster.  So do fish.  Over those millions of years we came up with different ways to do it but we still do generically the same thing.

Music may be the best immediate example since we have never seen a goldfish playing a violin.  Playing a solo instrument is one of the most emotionally and technically dangerous things a human can do because no-one can come, no-one can help, if anything goes wrong.  That danger also gives great freedom since the soloist can play whatever is in his or her twisted soul.  In playing a symphonic piece, there will be the agreement of 'no grandstanding' so the musicians deliberately suppress any overt risk-taking for the good of the overall piece.  Let's see Bubbles the Cute Little Goldfish do that.

Wind in the face is the thing go-fasters crave the most and that lot will never run with a pack.  There's at least some measure of social distortion since some of the members really want none of that society or at least gathering them in halls will be difficult.

Practically everything from this plays out kozmik since the science is based on observation so that gets a measure of subjectivity.  Dictating your kozmik is a tad presumptuous so do with this behavior what you will but it seems it may well be every creature down to fishes showing variations on it.

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