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   myrmepropagandist (futurebird@sauropods.win)'s status on Sunday, 18-Jan-2026 22:45:45 JST myrmepropagandist

   If torpor isn't defined by body temperature but it's about "metabolic rate" then why is the diapause of the ants (other insects also participate) not considered torpor?

   Further if a long torpor is a hibernation why correct people who say "the ants are hibernating"

   "the ants are in diapause" is more correct. But I thought this was because only endotherms could hibernate.

   I am confusion.

   • Embed this notice
     mcc (mcc@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 18-Jan-2026 22:45:40 JST mcc

     in reply to

     • Inga stands with 🇺🇦 🇵🇸

     @IngaLovinde @futurebird (MegaHAL was an open source chatbot program from around the year 2000 that, when given text input, added it to a markov chain text model and generated "conversational" responses. Back in the day I hooked it up to both IRC and AOL Instant Messenger, and I actually witnessed it passing the Turing Test, not because MegaHAL was smart, but because people are very prone to seeing the work of minds in random data.)

   • Embed this notice
     Inga stands with 🇺🇦 🇵🇸 (ingalovinde@embracing.space)'s status on Sunday, 18-Jan-2026 22:45:41 JST Inga stands with 🇺🇦 🇵🇸

     in reply to

     • mcc

     @mcc @futurebird and they didn't even give us HAL

     Rich Felker repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     mcc (mcc@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 18-Jan-2026 22:45:42 JST mcc

     in reply to

     @futurebird This is the kind of data I wish Wikidata had evolved into tracking https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q30090244

   • Embed this notice
     mcc (mcc@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 18-Jan-2026 22:45:42 JST mcc

     in reply to

     @futurebird I still want to live in the universe where "AI" meant "Wolfram Alpha with an absurd budget" and not "MegaHAL with an absurd budget"

   • Embed this notice
     MidgePhoto (photo55@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 18-Jan-2026 22:45:44 JST MidgePhoto

     in reply to

     @futurebird
     Isn't hibernate from winter, as aestivate is from summer, conditions?

   • Embed this notice
     myrmepropagandist (futurebird@sauropods.win)'s status on Sunday, 18-Jan-2026 22:45:44 JST myrmepropagandist

     in reply to

     • MidgePhoto

     @Photo55

     I don't know anymore.
     diapause seems like the most general term? so everything that hibernates is in diapause.

     I need an Euler diagram STAT of:

     hibernation
     estivation (or aestivation?)
     diapause
     dormancy
     brumation
     napping
     torpor

     With the differences and various example animals.

     (If AI did what it claimed this would be a great task to ask from AI, but, in fact, this is the kind of thing LLMs are the worst at: making categorizations logically... and not making up animals)