So boredom could be something like a preemptive defense mechanism against starving?
But the behavior has nothing to do with food levels. And if that were the case it would show up in more stupid species. A behavior that was to deal with starvation wouldn’t be so widespread among such a variety of different species. Birds aren’t mammals and they are doing things very similar to behavior by elephants and humans.
When an animal gets more intelligent, it tends to start creating goals and pursuing them. If a some subset of an intelligent species is more active about creating goals (i.e. they get bored when they do nothing, and look for something to do) they tend to end up accomplishing more goals (such as finding food or gaining status) and then in turn creating more offspring.
So boredom is a defense mechanism against akrasia and procrastination, more than starvation.
I guess this is one of those instances where thinking things through all the way rather than spitting out the first sentence that comes to mind would have been the better decision. Who’d’a thunk?
But the behavior has nothing to do with food levels. And if that were the case it would show up in more stupid species. A behavior that was to deal with starvation wouldn’t be so widespread among such a variety of different species. Birds aren’t mammals and they are doing things very similar to behavior by elephants and humans.
Let me rephrase/make that more specific:
When an animal gets more intelligent, it tends to start creating goals and pursuing them. If a some subset of an intelligent species is more active about creating goals (i.e. they get bored when they do nothing, and look for something to do) they tend to end up accomplishing more goals (such as finding food or gaining status) and then in turn creating more offspring.
So boredom is a defense mechanism against akrasia and procrastination, more than starvation.
I guess this is one of those instances where thinking things through all the way rather than spitting out the first sentence that comes to mind would have been the better decision. Who’d’a thunk?