@futurebird@sauropods.win
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futurebird

@futurebird@sauropods.win

pro-ant propaganda, building electronics, writing sci-fi teaching mathematics & CS. I live in NYC.

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futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Strange things are afoot in the carpenter ant nest this afternoon. A group of workers have seemingly turned against this particular larvae. They are all just biting it over and over... though not doing much damage? What could cause this? Maybe the larvae has died? Maybe it's infected? I will see if they really dismantle it or if it's just a bite fest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC6Z652m7F0

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Is it just me who finds it kind of pretentious when people start calling different coding techniques “pythonic”? like ? IDK most things that are “pythonic” seem to be info dense, very confusing, sometimes useful, but equally possibly obscure if you aren’t in the loop, cheeky— show-off-y and just a little annoying.

maybe i’m just an old lady

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

it’s that whole “one liner code” vibe that’s always rubbed me the wrong way a little— not that i’m not enjoying list comprehensions and all though half my students call them “list complications” and I don’t have the heart to correct them.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@powersoffour As someone who tries to think and model programming in a kind maximally universal pseudo code — I guess it’s against my whole “all languages are the same at some level” ethos.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@nickw I thought we started this whole journey to escape perl

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@spacehobo And the whole reason python has been winning that popularity contest is its mostly more readable as in you don’t need to know python to read python. That’s the big value.

futurebird,
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@peterdrake @llewelly

Now THAT's what I call PYTHONIC

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

It's always hilarious when people buy a luxury condo in NYC then proceed to complain that a bus stop is too close to their apartment, or that a new subway stop "makes too much traffic" or that restaurants... exist or that buildings are "so tall" or that "this place feels like it's turning in to a humongous city."

Where are you from that you are shocked by a bus? A woodland glade in the middle of an island in the north sea?

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@DeliaChristina

Where do they think the take out comes from????

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Witness with your own eyes the unspeakable horror that is a lacewing sucking aphids dry like juice boxes and sticking their empty husks on their back. Very disturbing video unless you really really hate aphids for some reason.

Monsters are real.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Pdbffdioe8

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

You may not like it.

But this is what peak performance looks like.

(Teratodes moticollis) The hooded grasshopper is a total gym rat.

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

… more like TetraWARium am i right?

(seriously though I saw 4 different ant wars on my way to school— This is the only species of ant that fights so conspicuously and that takes such large losses. They are wildly successful city residents so it doesn’t harm them any — but I don’t pretend to fully understand it.

They are territorial wars. But, colonies can only expand so much— I wonder if anyone has studied pavement ants over several years—

Is ant Guernica just how they “live”?

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

“long term-ism” is a moral magnifying glass: the answers to that question “what must we do today to save the future?” say more about those giving the answers than they do about survival of the species.

It’s obvious if you consider what radically different but equally “logical” answers are possible.

Here is my own answer:

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Humanity faces daunting problems that if they can be solved will only manage to be solved through human ingenuity. We need every mind available on these tasks. We need an era of unprecedented cooperation and scientific collaboration. We need every brain well nourished and optimistic enough to put itself to the tasks of finding sustainable ways to produce energy, understanding the ecosystems around us at a deeper level so we do not find ourselves at the mercy of nature. 1/

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

It may not be enough to simply take good care of every person and offer them education— we may need to increase the number of people to some greater critical level to amass the gray matter required for these problems. In the short term we’d need to educate everyone we have in the longer consider what hurdles exist to continued population growth. 2/2

(this is basically the opposite of what most longtermists are saying—)

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@franktaber Advocating for population growth is just me getting reactionary against the notion that there is anything to gain by focusing on reducing population as the long termers do. To say shrinking population growth is good is basically saying that some people are useless. (the correct position is to not attempt to guide it at all, more likely, stay out of it. )

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@mybarkingdogs @franktaber Nah. I refuse to accept this. I can’t prove you wrong but people are a persistent pestilence on the planet— we won’t have such a romantic end. The question is will it be ugly or can we avoid that?

futurebird,
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@kechpaja @franktaber

Don’t confuse their creepy “birth rate” fixations with “population growth” They only care about their weird eugenics project.

futurebird,
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@Gustodon

off topic but —- I’m sorry but how are truck nuts NOT a gender confirmation addition???

futurebird,
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@keithpjolley @tab2space @Gustodon it ain’t that deep it just … gender is consTRUCKed

futurebird,
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@airwhale @Gustodon and some are automatic

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Tetramorium wage war over yards of sidewalk. A battle for the ages. Little bodies piled high. No bird, no scavengers of serendipity, has arrived to take advantage of this tremendous waste. Too smugly I decide that war is maladaptive. And I imagine what The Ants of the Future might evolve to be. Will they still fight their little pointless sidewalk wars in a million years? A more pertinent question occurs—

—will there still be sidewalks in a million years or the creatures that made them?

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@joesabin A large flat rock that absorbs the sun is an ideal nursery. Flat rocks with sun exposure are prized and fought over in the forest. In our cities we give the ants everything they ever dreamed of having and some species thrive.

tikitu, to random
@tikitu@mastodon.social avatar

Snakefly! We get the most fabulous in our backyard

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@tikitu I feel like it’s laughing at my elementary taxonomic skills 😩

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@tikitu God just making bugs in midjourny now

futurebird,
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@tikitu @michaelgemar aren’t these the cuties that are super fugly when they are babies?

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@Cyrus @tikitu @michaelgemar Wow. You just— went right out there and said that didn’t you? No shame? Probably no regrets either I’d imagine. No concerns for the harm to your fellow humans at all.

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