The Cost of Smarts

The New York Times
Author: Verlyn Klinkenborg
May 7, 2008

This article written by Verlyn Klinkenborg came from the editorial notebook of The New York Times. I have read some of her ediroials before, and they are all a little over the top. She sometimes does not even have an argument. Many times she writes about the description of things like operas or mountains. I was skeptical at first about writing a blog on an article written by her, but as I began to read this one, it actually had a point. This is the first article that really made me think on the authors perspective. She talks about the research on animal intelligence and she refers to a recent article in Science Times about fruit flies who were taught to be smarter than the average fruit fly and how they had a shorter life. She states, "Intelligence, it turns out, is a high-priced option. It takes more upkeep, burns more fuel and is slow off the starting line because it depends on learning — a gradual process — instead of instinct. Plenty of other species are able to learn, and one of the things they’ve apparently learned is when to stop." She goes on to ask the reader what if animals could perform experiments on humans? Think about what they would perform on you. I still think this author is a little crazy, but at least this article actually had an argument instead of just decribing some random object.