Evolution, viewed as a process of progression (which it isn’t) leads to the notion that as the possessors of the most complex brains, we sit proudly at the top of the evolutionary pyramid. Even if one doesn’t question that it makes sense to assign ourselves this position, there’s no disputing that our tenure has thus far been very brief.

Flies on the other hand, have been around for about 200 million years and as Michael Dickinson explains, this has a lot to do with the sophistication of their neurology — which is to say, their ability to do much more with much less.