myrmepropagandist
Contacting myrmepropagandist
Federation handle:
@futurebird@sauropods.win
myrmepropagandist's Information
myrmepropagandist's Bio
pro-ant propaganda, building electronics, writing sci-fi teaching mathematics & CS. I live in NYC.
myrmepropagandist's Posts
myrmepropagandist has 8 posts.
myrmepropagandist
Is it hard to invent a way to encode human language as writing? For example ... if you lived long ago, but had lots of free time do you think you could have worked something out?
People make up spoken languages, we suspect, if they don't have them.
But, does writing require some design, some technical genius?
@futurebird I really like following you because you always bring up interesting ideas. It’s not -just- ants. 🐜
Shorthand, braille, and Morse code are all recent attempts to create a novel writing system based on existing written language.
My favorite weird example is dance notation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_notation
And the parallel discovery of written language in different places on the globe show that it’s not a one time thing.
by Sean O 🎃✂️ ;
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myrmepropagandist
In response to this post@ai6yr
“AdVon's cofounder responded to questions about this story by pointedly informing us of his business and personal connections with Recurrent's CEO and the executive chairman of Recurrent's board, in what felt like an effort to hamper our reporting by implying access to a corridor of power over our jobs.”
A harrowing tale! I’m glad that they kept digging we may assume this works at least some of the time and that is why we don’t always see such stories. #sloppocalypse
Tags: #sloppocalypse
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myrmepropagandist
In response to this post@nazokiyoubinbou @john_newall
I suspect the traces on the board are torn up because maybe it was a cheap board and the desoldering didn't go well.
@futurebird @nazokiyoubinbou amazingly all the traces, pads, and components survived the roasting and abuse. Magnet wire is attached to existing pads and - to my own surprise - the hardware is now functional.
by John_Newall ;
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myrmepropagandist
In response to this post@nazokiyoubinbou @john_newall
Having been there? Because the legs broke off and you don't want to wait order a new one... or the holes are in the wrong place. And if you need to do this nonsense might as well make it long enough to solider without screaming.
@futurebird @john_newall But... Like they're too long as-is anyway and could easily be shorter, plus you could just have the one side straight down then only run long leads to the other. Also the scorching makes me wonder if they used a flame instead of a soldering iron.
And and... well, a bunch of things!
by Nazo ;
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myrmepropagandist
In response to this post@fullyabstract
I think these vastly different responses to major trauma can make us think that they don't feel pain.
But if you've seen an ant whose messed with a beetle that has caustic secretions, they way she flinches away and cleans her antennae is more familiar ... it's how you'd react to something getting in your eye.
Is it all just "reflexes" ... and what do we mean by "just reflexes" anyway?
@futurebird Were you able to read the whole article yet? I would say the overall conclusion of the article is some insects are sentient
by Alley Stoughton ;
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myrmepropagandist
@fullyabstract
One thing that makes this difficult is the *purpose* of a pain response to injury is to prevent worse injury and to facilitate healing. If you have an internal skeleton and break a bone, not putting weight on the bone can help you to heal. With an exoskeleton the needs are different.
Ants will treat severed limbs with formic acid and other secretions to prevent blood infection in hemolymph. But they will cheerfully walk on the stump. There is nothing to be gained by limping.
@fullyabstract
I think these vastly different responses to major trauma can make us think that they don't feel pain.
But if you've seen an ant whose messed with a beetle that has caustic secretions, they way she flinches away and cleans her antennae is more familiar ... it's how you'd react to something getting in your eye.
Is it all just "reflexes" ... and what do we mean by "just reflexes" anyway?
by myrmepropagandist ;
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myrmepropagandist
In response to this post@fullyabstract
"The default view of the vast majority of the general public, as well as many of my colleagues, is that insects are largely reflex machines,” Lars Chittka, a behavioral biologist
This is absolutely wild to me. It's not like I'm even vegan or anything, but insects have basic emotional states (fear, calm, frustration) and work to avoid pain and live. There are some deep differences in the ways they process pain, I think.
Many insects can learn.
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myrmepropagandist
Thinking about super clusters of galaxies and getting very upset about how big that is.
Don't even get me started on that... gravitational noodle nonsense. I can't handle that stuff yet.
I'm just... going to try to get less upset about the super clusters for now. Don't tell me about anything bigger please.
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