Puzzle no.3

[pleasurekerry]

..you cannot google this, i think.!

3 birds sitting on a tree branch; 1 bird decides to fly off- how many birds remain on branch?

[Magicman]

..you cannot google this, i think.!

3 birds sitting on a tree branch; 1 bird decides to fly off- how many birds remain on branch?

Until the bird actually flies away there are three birds on the branch.

Magicman

[EIFII]

Until the bird actually flies away there are three birds on the branch.

Magicman

A bird cannot be considered capable of making decisions now about postponed future actions. So in making the decision to fly off, it then immediately flies off. Of rather, it flies off, thus making the decision to do so, apparently on impulse.

So to answer the question, 2

[Magicman]

A bird cannot be considered capable of making decisions now about postponed future actions. So in making the decision to fly off, it then immediately flies off. Of rather, it flies off, thus making the decision to do so, apparently on impulse.

So to answer the question, 2

What do you mean that birds can't make decisions about postponed future actions....................how about birds who wait for a flock to fly away together? Surely it isn't a case that thousands of birds decide to fly all at the exact same time. So that means that they make a decision to fly together when they are ready to do so. I'm not really well up on birds and how they make these decisions but they do seemed planned.

If that is the case then my answer might be right.

Magicman

[pleasurekerry]

What do you mean that birds can't make decisions about postponed future actions....................how about birds who wait for a flock to fly away together? Surely it isn't a case that thousands of birds decide to fly all at the exact same time. So that means that they make a decision to fly together when they are ready to do so. I'm not really well up on birds and how they make these decisions but they do seemed planned.

If that is the case then my answer might be right.

Magicman

you certainly awake early in morn.MM..YES You are correct....like you said, adecision is made;it would take a subsequent action to actually change the numbers...

[Dr. Ivory]

The truthful answer is none. The other two birds would both fly off as well because birds don't like to stay if someone else leaves.

[Dr. Ivory]

What do you mean that birds can't make decisions about postponed future actions....................how about birds who wait for a flock to fly away together? Surely it isn't a case that thousands of birds decide to fly all at the exact same time.
Magicman

With miliseconds of difference in the decision making, they do decide at more or less exactly the same time - but because of each other. That is exactly why birds, like fish swarm and can move together. They decide to move exactly because the one beside them moved, without premeditation. We protect our ideology of individualism in our society by modelling their behaviour as thousands of separate decisions, where as it works much better as a single decision taken all-but simultaneously by thousands of birds.....or fish. How that is done, is that they are committed to being together. They make themselves vulnerable to each other by committing unreservedly to the flock. Consequently they cease to operate as entirely discrete individuals.The mechanism of individual decision making is still there, but the substance is gone.

birds who need birds are the luckiest birds...like people.

[Stephanie]

What do you mean that birds can't make decisions about postponed future actions....................how about birds who wait for a flock to fly away together? Surely it isn't a case that thousands of birds decide to fly all at the exact same time. So that means that they make a decision to fly together when they are ready to do so. I'm not really well up on birds and how they make these decisions but they do seemed planned.

If that is the case then my answer might be right.

Magicman

I beg to disagree !

A flock of birds do Not 'decide' to fly off all at the same time next Tuesday at twelve noon !

: one of the flock (the eldest ? Most experienced ? Most anxious ??) gets the notion that it's time to scram ,

starts the 'preparations for' flying off (pruning , hustling , positioning , etc. ) , and that will set the rest of the flock also

into a preparatory mode , and when one of them takes flight , the whole flock follows.

: because their survival depends on being part of the flock. One follows the other , without forethought.

As schools of fish , herds of gnu or buffalo , they react to their immediate neighbors's actions and movements.

Survival instinct. No forethought in this case I'm afraid. xx

[Stephanie]

: same as millions of bats do Not 'decide' to leave the cave en masse , all at the same time :

They are simply reacting to outside stimuli , and acting on the same stimuli 'en masse' as part of a survival strategy xx

[Dr. Ivory]

.....their survival depends on being part of the flock. One follows the other , without forethought. As schools of fish , herds of gnu or buffalo , they react to their immediate neighbors's actions and movements.

I guess that is what differentiates you from a bird, they are dependent on other birds to survive. Only the flock survives. The loner dies - dysfunctional :-)