Makes sense, though, doesn't it? An elephant's trunk is the fusion of its nose and upper lip, wouldn't that be the location where the mystacial vibrissae (whiskers) be located on any other mammal, making these homologous to e.g. cat's whiskers, which are highly sensitive?
sure, elephants exhibit material intelligence (whatever that means), but the individual whiskers? and also i thought cats whiskers could only determine the width rather than the texture of a gap theyre trying to fit through, though maybe cats also "feel" texture through whiskers
“Material intelligence” appears to mean that the tapering of the whiskers allows for touch localization that’s more precise than would be expected from the whisker density alone. Not that the whiskers are “thinking” in any way that most of us would expect from the title.
This could be useful for blind people. If the stick tapers to a hair, then it would be a soft response on a flat surface, and a stronger feel when hitting a step, &c.
Though surely they would have already discovered this...
Human beings have similar senses of touch, we just don't need the hairs because our skin is very thin compared to an elephant. However, robots sometimes use something like this.
Intelligence. Oh dear. As if the word wasn't getting enough abuse already these days...
At the same time it's getting kind of annoying that 'intelligence' is only something that humans have and nothing else can posses it simply because people are getting AI burnout.
That intelligence can be posessed by non-humans is generally uncontested. Just ask a cat :)
Hey, if we can 'teach molecules' (another great topic of today here), for sure whiskers can 'exhibit material intelligence'. I have rather low bar, not a scientist so my eyes are not bleeding. But sure as hell these hurt.