Adagio - How do They ... ummm well ...

This morning's coffee discussion started up because we'd just sailed past/thru a rather huge 'patch' of Portuguese Man-of-War jellyfish. The 'patch' extended for two miles or so and was pretty densely populated, enough to prevent counting them (which, at 5 knots, is pretty thick). They were sort-of-spread-out and also sort-of-gathered-together-in-clumps and it just makes you wonder exactly how these cool (but deadly) little creatures get along in their world.

So, they have these 'sails' atop the water and dangle their venomous tentacles deeply beneath them. Some tentacles are visible but some are so sinewy and fine that they are nearly invisible and perhaps dangling ten feet below the water level. These guys purportedly have no brains, no means of propulsion except to go where the wind pushes their little 'sails' and we're not real sure how they fit in the food chain (I mean, who would eat these things anyway??).

Inquiring minds wanted to know, but since we are a few days out from being able to just connect to Google we have to be patient and pool what precious little knowledge we had together. Here's what we came up with:

The reason they have no brains is because it is so incredibly boring to sit afloat on the ocean for your whole life it would drive a thinking creature mad.
If they DID have a brain, they'd be stuck trying to communicate with other equally bored wanderers and basically all they could talk about would be the weather.
Without a brain, they don't have to wonder about the answer to questions like "How did I get here?" or "How will I get over there?"
and they never have to figure out the quandary of "OK, now what???" when they accidentally sting, stun and kill a prey.

I'm not even sure we can talk about how they end up in clans or patches, or if the sole jellyfish 15 miles away from the other ones gets lonely, or if they do bump into one another if it hurts, or they somehow know better than to sting the only company they might run into for months. And, how careful do they have to be during reproduction??? ... well ... however that might work ....

Yes, these musings and more are available for review on the "Adagio Coffee Hour" discussion podcasts (OK, not really).

Until later,

Gary
Adagio