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Pigeon based thought experiment
Apr. 13th, 2008 01:12 amSo, today, while walking to get lunch, I noticed something. There was this pigeon on the ground, pecking at some fragment of a bagel, right? But as I walked towards it, it moved away.
Not a big shocker there, right?
First it moved in the same direction I was going, then it's little pigeon brain realized that it was not getting away from me fast enough, and it moved away obliquely. Since I was not chasing the pigeon and continued on my original course, this served to keep the pigeon safe in it's own little pigeon world.
But what would happen if two people approached a pigeon from opposite directions? Well, it would move at some angle away from the two of them. Fine, lots of room for Mr. Pigeon to get away still.
What if it was three people, at the corners of an equilateral triangle? What would the pigeon do? What if you upped it to 5 or 6 people or whatever was enough to try and surround the pigeon.... would it put on a burst of speed to escape or just try and fly straight up?
Such are my thoughts when I'm hungry.
Not a big shocker there, right?
First it moved in the same direction I was going, then it's little pigeon brain realized that it was not getting away from me fast enough, and it moved away obliquely. Since I was not chasing the pigeon and continued on my original course, this served to keep the pigeon safe in it's own little pigeon world.
But what would happen if two people approached a pigeon from opposite directions? Well, it would move at some angle away from the two of them. Fine, lots of room for Mr. Pigeon to get away still.
What if it was three people, at the corners of an equilateral triangle? What would the pigeon do? What if you upped it to 5 or 6 people or whatever was enough to try and surround the pigeon.... would it put on a burst of speed to escape or just try and fly straight up?
Such are my thoughts when I'm hungry.