Jannia, the poison-delivery-method is pretty complex, too. It’s amazing they didn’t develop a stinger, or legs, as well. They had to have a gland to produce the poison, a sac to store it, and the hypodermic needle-like teeth to inject it.
I can’t imagine any of them serving a function alone.
Perhaps the rattles started appearing, and snakes started shaking them. Or perhaps they started using a shaking tail to distract predators and prey, and then those wierd mutant rattles came in handy.
We still see genetic mutations, and should one of them prove more useful, eventually, it will become dominant and more pronounced.
Reading “The Evolution Of Desire” was a huge turning point in my thought process.
Either way, it’s fascinating.
P.S. I’ve been lost on this blog at work for the last week or two. Great work, even the commentors have more interesting thunks to think than most blog authors.
First: The argument wasn’t the author being an a$$hole. He was stating the nature of his business, which is a very normal thing to do at a social gathering. (We are, to a disturbing extend, defined by our income.) Godboy dismissed his profession as quixotic, leading the author to the notion that if he created a working AI, that it would disprove God, in the mind of his coparticipant in discussion. This was a logical inferrence, based on the statement that inspired it.
Second: The only winner in a conversation is the person who learns something. I believe, that in being forced to examine his beliefs, and how he expresses them in polite company, Godboy was the clear winner.
Unless you’re in the habit of giving out cookies to any sophists who gives you a pimp slap with the logical vernacular.