Is that kind of information passed down genetically and if so, how does that work exactly? It seems easier to explain instinctive behaviors in other animals but weaving a perfectly geometric web seems so advanced it’s hard to fathom how that level of knowledge can simply be inherited genetically. Is there something science is missing?
In: 1829
computer science approach: from reverse engineering animal instinctual behaviors, there a good chance nature packs the web design into a few simple rules/behaviors that when repeated result in complex structures…
flocking birds and schooling fish work by maintaining about average distance to neatby members of the group and heading in about the average direction of all the members surrounding you… yea, they’re all doing the same, and their other instincts still steer or override sometimes, but that just cascades through the group and back to the original member and you end up with huge beautiful mumurations of starlings or swirling “bait balls” of anchovies in the ocean without any member attempting to form a structure.
so, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it were just a combination of a few simple rules like “keep threads on my left at the distance of me longest leg on that side” and “don’t go more than a few body lengths before attaching to something”
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