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Does a caterpillar know it's going to become a butterfly?

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Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man. — Zhuangzi. Today I'm going to talk about two of my favorite things: psychology and butterflies. read more

Before hatching, when a caterpillar is still developing inside its egg, it grows an imaginal disc for each of the adult body parts it will need as a mature butterfly or moth—discs for its eyes, for its wings, its legs and so on. read more

As far as we know, Homo sapiens is the only species which can recursively model the individual him/her self into their mental model of their world for consideration of possible futures depending on next actions. read more

And suddenly, without warning, the caterpillar began to become encased in a hard, silky shell. Horror washed over him as the sunlight slowly dissipated behind the rapidly enclosing tomb. The caterpillar tried to scream but could not as his body dissolved into a biological goo and everything he knew ceased to exist. read more

Once a caterpillar has disintegrated all of its tissues except for the imaginal discs, those discs use the protein-rich soup all around them to fuel the rapid cell division required to form the wings, antennae, legs, eyes, genitals and all the other features of an adult butterfly or moth. read more

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