Good news for C students

The New York Times reported Tuesday that “Fruit flies who were taught to be smarter than the average fruit fly tended to live shorter lives.” Times columnist Verlyn Klinkenborg follows up today:

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.

Is there an adaptive value to limited intelligence? That’s the question behind this new research. I like it. Instead of casting a wistful glance backward at all the species we’ve left in the dust I.Q.-wise, it implicitly asks what the real costs of our own intelligence might be.

Give this the importance you think appropriate (but don’t think too hard lest you expire at your desk).