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@mcnado I know you know, but you are misleading people with your metaphor. The process you describe is not about bacteria “learning.” Learning is a process by which individuals change in response to experience. Evolution is a process by which populations change in response to experience.
You are describing evolution by natural selection against the more susceptible bacteria. The natural selection is caused by the antibiotic in their environment.
@ELS @mcnado
Came here to pretty much say this.
Appreciate brevity and simplicity is often a premium on SM.
However learning moments should be grasped.
Incomplete treatment can select for resistant bacteria which then become dominant and transmitted to others.
This is a perfect example of every day evolution. Helping people to understand selection pressures helps in understanding evolution in general.
@ELS Wittgenstein's Ladder has its uses.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wittgenstein%27s_ladder
Key in public communications is to prioritise clarity over accuracy. The latter can be supplied later (and if at all possible in a positive "yes, and" rather than "no, but" sense). Clarity, required to acquire the message at all in the first place is far more significant.
You're technically correct, but working strongly cross-purposes here.