Is adaptation a sense?

[Landon Caeli]

The senses we are familiar with are the 5 -sight, smell, hear, taste and feel.

...But what about the ability to adapt? Especially considering the pigmy seashorse, which actually grows skin filaments to look exactly like its natural coral environment.

 

[Occams Barber]

The senses we are familiar with are the 5 -sight, smell, hear, taste and feel.

...But what about the ability to adapt? Especially considering the pigmy seashorse, which actually grows skin filaments to look exactly like its natural coral environment.

View attachment 237115

Senses are the means through which we detect the environment.

Your seahorse example is an example of a reaction or adjustment to the environment as a result of an evolutionary process.

So, no, adaption is not a sense.
OB

 

[dreadnought]

The senses we are familiar with are the 5 -sight, smell, hear, taste and feel.

...But what about the ability to adapt? Especially considering the pigmy seashorse, which actually grows skin filaments to look exactly like its natural coral environment.

View attachment 237115

Do humans have the ability to physically adapt?

 

[Brightmoon]

Do humans have the ability to physically adapt?

Yes , for example ,every time you eat some food your body changes the gene expression in your stomach cells to digest the food by producing more acid ,protective mucus, and digestive enzymes . The ability to adapt quickly is caused by natural selection over time and it’s that ability that evolution works on . Adaptation is not evolution but the ability to adapt can evolve. Creationist organizations tend to twist legitimate scientific terminology so watch your definitions

 

[dreadnought]

Yes , for example ,every time you eat some food your body changes the gene expression in your stomach cells to digest the food by producing more acid ,protective mucus, and digestive enzymes . The ability to adapt quickly is caused by natural selection over time and it’s that ability that evolution works on . Adaptation is not evolution but the ability to adapt can evolve. Creationist organizations tend to twist legitimate scientific terminology so watch your definitions

Our bodies are born with the ability to "change the gene expression in your stomach cells to digest the food by producing more acid ,protective mucus, and digestive enzymes," I would assume. What about things the body is not born to do?

 

[Kenny'sID]

Your seahorse example is an example of a reaction or adjustment to the environment as a result of an evolutionary process.

Have you verified that? And if so, can you please explain how?

 

[Occams Barber]

Do humans have the ability to physically adapt?

You question can be interpreted in two different ways.

One interpretation is physically adapting through an immediate response to an environmental factor. Examples of this are goose pimples or shivering as a response to cold.

The other way of looking at your question is 'do humans evolve' assuming this is the sense in which you are using 'physically adapt'. The answer is 'yes' but I wouldn't describe this as an 'ability' since this suggests agency. Evolution is more of an imposed process.
OB

 

[Brightmoon]

And these are the abilities that natural selection can work on . Look at placozoa which looks like a 2 cell layer pancake . The bottom layer has the ability to digest anything it crawls over . If you compare that to most bilaterians ( like yourself ) the digestive tract is basically a tube with extra padding around it . Some where during Precambrian animal evolution the flat pancake type rolled into a tube

 

[dreadnought]

You question can be interpreted in two different ways.

One interpretation is physically adapting through an immediate response to an environmental factor. Examples of this are goose pimples or shivering as a response to cold.

The other way of looking at your question is 'do humans evolve' assuming this is the sense in which you are using 'physically adapt'. The answer is 'yes' but I wouldn't describe this as an 'ability' since this suggests agency. Evolution is more of an imposed process.
OB

To what extent can a single human being evolve in one lifetime?

 

[Justatruthseeker]

The senses we are familiar with are the 5 -sight, smell, hear, taste and feel.

...But what about the ability to adapt? Especially considering the pigmy seashorse, which actually grows skin filaments to look exactly like its natural coral environment.

View attachment 237115

Which would be accomplished in response to vision of the surroundings, and possibly taste, smell and feel as well.......

 

[Kenny'sID]

Evolution is more of an imposed process

Or more of a "supposed" process.

I think the Martians made the Seahorse that way, and fortunately for me, we don't have prove our claims here.

 

[Occams Barber]

Have you verified that? And if so, can you please explain how?

Within the boundaries of the normal scientific understanding of the evolutionary process explaining the changes to the seahorse as a result of an evolutionary process is a reasonable assumption.

Since the OP's subject was differentiating between sense and adaptation I am not about to side track this thread into another CF debate on the truth or falsity of evolution.
OB

 

[Justatruthseeker]

Or more of a "supposed" process.

I think the Martians made the Seahorse that way, and fortunately for me, we don't have prove our claims here.

Well, that's sounds about as valid as evolution. So I "suppose" its ok.....

 

[Landon Caeli]

You question can be interpreted in two different ways.

One interpretation is physically adapting through an immediate response to an environmental factor. Examples of this are goose pimples or shivering as a response to cold.

The other way of looking at your question is 'do humans evolve' assuming this is the sense in which you are using 'physically adapt'. The answer is 'yes' but I wouldn't describe this as an 'ability' since this suggests agency. Evolution is more of an imposed process.
OB

Nice. And a third way would be by our immediate thought processes, such as the use of camouflage during wartime.

 

[Kenny'sID]

As to the OP, I think, in a case like this, it could very well be considered a sense.

 

[Kenny'sID]

Within the boundaries of the normal scientific understanding of the evolutionary process explaining the changes to the seahorse as a result of an evolutionary process is a reasonable assumption.

Since the OP's subject was differentiating between sense and adaptation I am not about to side track this thread into another CF debate on the truth or falsity of evolution.
OB

As expected, but thanks just the same.

 

[Justatruthseeker]

Senses are the means through which we detect the environment.

Your seahorse example is an example of a reaction or adjustment to the environment as a result of an evolutionary process.

So, no, adaption is not a sense.
OB

Yet the response is in response to its senses. Without being able to see it's environment, it would not be able to control it's outward appearance to match the environment. It is in direct response to its senses which allow it to detect its environment. Some are free ranging between sea grasses and algae and change camouflage in response to their background.

Adaptation has nothing to do with macroevolution, anymore than black rabbits becoming white rabbits shows evolution of new species.... variation within the species is seen. Variation outside the species is not, until we get to classification errors and ignoring scientific definitions....

 

[Occams Barber]

Or more of a "supposed" process.

I think the Martians made the Seahorse that way, and fortunately for me, we don't have prove our claims here.

Fortunately for this discussion it doesn't matter if the seahorse was made that way by evolution or Martians. In either case the seahorse's 'adaptation is not a 'sense' and that was the OP's question.
OB

 

[Kenny'sID]

Fortunately for this discussion it doesn't matter if the seahorse was made that way by evolution or Martians. In either case the seahorse's 'adaptation is not a 'sense' and that was the OP's question.
OB

Being truthful always matters.

 

[Occams Barber]

Yet the response is in response to its senses. Without being able to see it's environment, it would not be able to control it's outward appearance to match the environment. It is in direct response to its senses which allow it to detect its environment. Some are free ranging between sea grasses and algae and change camouflage in response to their background.

If we are talking about a seahorse's existing ability to change its' appearance based on its background, then we are describing a behaviour in response to a sense (like shivering) not the sense itself. Even in your scenario, physical adaption is not a sense.

My response to Landon was based on the assumption that the 'physical adaption' he was referring to was the initial acquisition of its camouflaged appearance.
OB