The Cuckoo's Egg Hatched Again - 5

Not Da Momma

In this series we have been discussing the metaphor of hackers being like the Cuckoo bird's biology nomenclature description 'brood parasitism' of which it is said:

"Brood parasitic birds lay their eggs in the nests of others, sparing themselves the expense of rearing their own young ... Avian brood parasitism, or the laying of one's eggs in the nest of another individual, is a reproductive strategy whereby parasites foist the cost of rearing their offspring onto another individual, the host"

(Nature) . A more humorous 'scientific' description is:

"Being a parent is hard. Raising a family takes a lot of energy and time. If you have kids, you know what I’m talking about.

I mean, I don’t have kids, but I do have some pet chickens. I imagine that’s pretty close to the same thing. 

When you’re an exhausted parent and you wish you had some time to just live your own life, you might secretly fantasize about taking your kids over to your neighbor, dropping them off, and saying, 'Here. These are YOURS now. I’ve got better things to do… like sleep.' ”

(The Science of Birds). So, the Cuckoo, with the four atoms that its DNA is composed of (On The Origin Of Another Genetic Constant - 5; Appendix Cuckoo Chromosomes), which are the same four atoms that human DNA is composed of, checks its budget and decides to save some bucks by dumping eggs in the neighbor's nest?

And this is a 'strategy'?:

"1 a(1): the science and art of employing the political, economic, psychological, and military forces of a nation or group of nations to afford the maximum support to adopted policies in peace or war; a(2): the science and art of military command exercised to meet the enemy in combat under advantageous conditions; b: a variety of or instance of the use of strategy

2 a: a careful plan or method: a clever stratagem; b: the art of devising or employing plans or stratagems toward a goal

3: an adaptation or complex of adaptations (as of behavior, metabolism, or structure) that serves or appears to serve an important function in achieving evolutionary success"

(strategy, dictionary). The bio boyz are playing with dolls again (The Doll As Metaphor, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8; Small Brains Considered, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18).

So, bring on the first brood parasites, the cuckoo machines (The Uncertain Gene, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11; Putting A Face On Machine Mutation, 2, 3, 4; The Machine Religion, 2, 3, 4, 5; The New Paradigm: The Physical Universe Is Mostly Machine, 2, 3; Did Abiotic Intelligence Precede Biotic Intelligence?).

The previous post in this series is here.

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Dr. Paul G. Falkowski:

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