F
That said, I think this is a lot like when a celebrity runs a "charity auction" but you can only participate using the obscure crypto currency they are vested in.
It's a kind of pumping scam. Not enough people are using AI to make videos so here is a way to try to make people use AI to make videos. On "vibes" you have no choice.
The desperation propping up the bubble keeps becoming more and more visible.
Meta Vibes is a new facebook AI video "creation" tool and tiktok like short form video feed.
I think it's just a way to create more demand for those data centers. People who really want to make content have found limited uses for AI, but have also experienced backlash from their audiences.
"Vibes" skips this problem by eliminating this segment of the audience. Everything in vibes is AI and anyone can be a "creator" ... wow.
Will we see "viral vibes?" (this new jargon is destroying my soul)
Ant mimics look like AI generated ants. Both of the following photos made my "is that AI" sense twitch, but these are both real photos of ants along side a rove beetle mimic in the first and a spider mimic in the second.
Maybe the way that AI is adjacent to mimicry is part of what makes it creep me out so much.
*angry old lady noises*
You'd hardly think it to look at me
that a cat like me could be so hungry
But it's time it is said.
I have never been fed.
never been treated right!
Not once in my life.
You'd think, for a cat like me,
life would be so free and easy!
I'm loved and praised
but you'll be amazed.
When you see my bowl so bare
there isn't any food there
I've never been fed.
I've never been fed.
And soon I'll be DEAD.
Because I've never been fed.
Replacing every search engine with a 30s paper boy who doesn't really listen to what you ask for, runs off to get it before you get done explaining, and always gets waylaid by flimflam men who pay him a nickel to bring back something other than what you asked for along the way.
"Bugsey said yous might like to read this paper better miss, aw wontcha least take a look miss??"
Time to take a closer look at the textures of #ants (and some other insects) and the fantastic variation of the exoskeleton.
It'd be so neat to model these & 3D print them at a larger scale. These textures are all optimized through millions of years of #evolution to make insects strong, hygienic, stealthy, hard to attack... and who knows what else. So much to learn from them!
(Thanks to cnestus at tumblr for showing me this paper! https://www.tumblr.com/cnestus/742527231977455616/source-harris-1979-a-glossary-of-surface?source=share)
On The Coming War Between The Ants and the Robots:
I think that I shall never see
a war drone as lovely as a bee.
Automata solutions grant
answers better made by ants.
The finest robots, human-made
of arthropods are but pale shades.
When swarms of steel and chitin war
hymenoptera devours.
Get ready!
Ants could also be used for pest control in enclosed spaces. Army ants sweep over the forest killing most arthropods in a region. What if they could sweep over your apartment, or restaurant every few weeks and eliminate unwanted guests?
Larger ants could be used for search and rescue. Equipped with small trackers or cameras (The larger ants could wear the cameras) they could sweep over a destabilized building and find missing people.
4/
Some species of ants grow fungus gardens and practice weeding to keep the gardens free of inedible fungi and plants. Ants that live in mutualistic relationships with trees and gourds meticulously trim and kill all unwanted plants that grow near their host plant. Domesticated herbicidal ants could collect seeds from weeds and clip seedlings.
3/
They would be excellent for agriculture.
Weaver ants are already used for pest control in orchards, farmers place silk cocoons to attract queens & connect branches of adjacent trees to help ants expand their territory.
The weaver ants naturally attack most arthropods that enter the tree.
But what if ants could also help with tasks like controlling unwanted weeds? 2/
The Case for Domesticated Ants:
Domesticated bees are useful. They pollinate crops & produce honey. But, what could domesticated ants do?
Ants are stronger than bees & come in a wide range of sizes. They can be kept healthy on an inexpensive a diet of feeder insects & plant sugars. Ants are fastidious & pay attention to details. 1/
Waiting for the moment when I share my cool 40% #keyboard and someone pops up out of nowhere and is like "a full alphabet? You are like a little baby to me." #MechanicalKeyboards #MechanicalKeyboard #keyboards
To see a higher res version of the video go to the link-- they are honeybees.
I kinda wish they were yellow jackets since those poor girls could use a cute video that people like.
Yellow jackets get so much hate... although they can be annoying.
Over on tiktok user @nomadicpancakes has observed a group of #bees that have learned to turn on the sensor on a water bottle filling station by walking over the target.
This is just the kind of thing bees are made to learn, they love targets and need to follow them when dealing with flowers all the time.
The interesting thing is that the bee who hits the target produces water for her sisters, herself less so. But these #eusocial girls seem to have that worked out!
This is an image that reassures those of us who get sad sometimes about all the extinct creatures that we won't get to see alive in all their glory it's a drawing that's saying "shhh it's OK. They live on. Look! Look at the doves!"
"In your next life" by David Campos-- please visit his tumblr to see more.
I think I see through the magic trick of the The Library of Babel a little better now. Not that anything about it is "fake" --just that part of what makes it feel impossible is going to a room and finding a book on a particular shelf feels like a very finite act-- but "every book possible" feels infinite.
Feels.
The hexagons have very long names. It's critical that the books use only lower case letters, otherwise the names would be laughably long. The hexagon names are a more dense encoding.
I really wish I could find the name of the artist who made this shell oil add for a pesticide. They drew a really expressive, but still "ant-like" ant.
It's a hard thing to do! I think they also drew this grasshopper... and I can't even find the source for that one.
Who is this artist??? #art #insects #ants #antstodon
