More on what, to avoid any slightest possibility of offense, I shall henceforth refer to as Amoeboid Americans:

[Reader A]: (Quoting me) “Neat stuff, though it left me vaguely wondering … what do we need brains for?” [He] I think you’ve got your causation reversed. Brains evolved as the emergent behavior of bigger and bigger clumps of neurons turned out to be effective for relative survival rate increases.[Reader B]: You need a brain in order to be antisocial.[Reader C]: Related to the ant story in your slime mold post. The ants don’t always find the most efficient path. I watched a line of ants come up a wall to the bottom of a counter in my house. The trail then went about four feet along the bottom of the counter, then up about two inches, then four feet back along the counter to within the same two inches of where they started. Eight feet instead of two inches. Not so efficient. Then again, ants probably don’t feel time constrained, so maybe the real lesson is that without brains, the perfect can’t become the enemy of the good.[Readers D thru Y]: (Variations of) God makes it happen.[Reader Z]: What do we need brains for? Zombie chow.