And the world within a single word

Our understanding of bats has changed moderately since Cuvier wrote his animal textbook. In part, this is because our instruments have changed to allow us to measure and quantify what is happening with the bat’s sensory system. But that is not all that has happened. How does one describe something to another person, who may have no direct understanding of what is taking place? We understand bats because we know they use “sonar”. Our entire understanding of the concept can be compressed into that single word. Since we know of that technology, we can use it as a metaphor to describe something else that may or may not be exactly like it. As technology changes, our definitions and metaphors change. In explaining computer concepts, I have often used real world examples (i.e. a file server is like a waitress). But as technology advances, those technologies can be used as metaphors for other things. Saying that bats use sonar is a great simplification available because of the invention of the technology. The description works both ways- for someone who knows about the navigation of bats, and does not know about sonar- the inverse is also true. As technology advances, and we create robots that act like insects, we start to understand how those insects behave. Eventually, when those products enter the marketplace, they will be used as metaphors for the insect behaviors. It won’t be so different from how we used sonar and radar to describe the navigation of bats. The thing about using the metaphor is that it works both ways. We can not only describe animal behavior in terms of the technologies we have created, but it is possible to describe our technologies in terms of animal behavior and traits. Our understanding of animals not only changes, but our understanding of technology changes as well.