Notices by myrmepropagandist (futurebird@sauropods.win), page 24

Why is worm music kind of one-note?

They are strictly D composers.

The “Liberal Arts” education is a suite of skills, philosophical stances, and information that has been refined over hundreds of years. It includes both technical skills and problem solving techniques— it provides a foundation for more specialized study but also for philosophical reflection. It evolves over time, but isn’t subject whims of the market or fashion.

What is the role of Computer Science in the Platonic ideal of the liberal arts education?

Given that computers are ubiquitous and powerful tools part of that education should enable students to understand these tools sufficiently to embark on their redesign— and to, of course, use these tools effectively and responsibly.

Tools are reflections of the aspirations and values of their creators— what values are embodied by the computer? what are its limitations and and advantages?

Every time I teach “intro” I dread, but also love the “binary encoding activity” This is about trying to get students to think about what they need to do to encode first a limited set, but then open ended messages in binary (no spaces! no line breaks!)

They quickly reinvent concepts like “code should be in chunks of uniform length” and ways to signal the start and end of different encoding methods. It’s kinda chaotic but went well today.

@dahukanna @PavelASamsonov

How could you ... discover anything new? Learn anything?

The whole point of research is when it surprises you. When they user keeps doing something you didn't expect and you don't know why.

How could AI ever ever ever produce this most rare but also most valuable of data?

All it can do is make results that ... look like other results, that say what you expect them to say. How do people keep missing the point of what LLMs can and CAN NOT do?

@kellogh @dahukanna @PavelASamsonov

Even if you did get something that most people would agree had to be called "new" (very subjective) it's not going to tell you anything about how people use software. Because the data didn't come from people.

::"It is strange to me that so many humans do not have a colony, or live in fear of losing their colony. Now I would never claim ants are perfect--" (this last was manifestly false) "--but, every ant on Myrmecos has her colony. We do have orphans, true, but they are still-- well, they are ants! They are a part of the colony of all of us, of all ants. An ant would never worry about not having a place to call her home. Human life seems filled with pointless stress. I could never tolerate it."

@mistergibson @wa7iut @wmd

I still think the NYC tree planting events were good for the community. People got together and dug around in the soils of their local parks and medians. We noticed the little wild places tucked between the buildings and met other people who cared. I think a better event could feature:

* identifying insects and wildlife
* better guides for the local groups
* planting native PLANTS not just trees
* weeding species that don't fit
* housing for bees and ants

@mistergibson @wa7iut @wmd

So if you planed a tree and it died don't feel so bad.

We can't just spend a day planting trees and call our problems solved. We all need to learn a lot more about the ecosystems we live in.

@meena

Maybe it's a story of a transition.

Shall we write an extended fan-fiction universe about the cool scientists we wish existed?

@wa7iut @wmd

I make a monthly contribution to wikipedia. I used to have many problems with them (and still do) but I realized how lost I'd be if they ever became like the rest of the web. I need them to be the way that they are.

@amberage @medley56 @wmd

If you are looking at papers on a controversial topic eg. COVID there is already a lot of fake stuff out there. But on "boring" science topics, things like a description of a new species of ant? One can trust a paper most of the time.

But, my trust has been deeply shaken and I check now and then, and look for the signs of the rot spreading regularly.

@amberage @medley56 @wmd @alexwild

So far there have been some fake papers submitted to journals and I think a few even got "published" but at time of posting if you find something that looks like a paper that says it's from Journal X it's probably really just that.

But I don't expect it to stay that way forever.

@BorisBarbour @medley56 @wmd @alexwild

I don't have institutional access to most journals so many of these systems are of limited value for me. I tend to find pdfs of journal articles I want to read when they aren't behind a paywall or if I can get the author to send it to me.

Will these extensions help with that?

Amateurs doing self study like me don't have access to many of the tools that those working in the system might have.

@medley56 @wmd

I already do this if I'm doing any serious research, but part of learning is exploratory. Needing to suspect that EVERY sentence could be a lie kills the momentum.

I'm not a professional scientist. I'm just an enthusiastic amateur. I have a full time job and don't have the time to do all that all of the time.

I should be able to read a damn blog about ants without being worried a machine is feeding me lies from a ghost.

@medley56 @wmd @alexwild

I live in fear of the day that things that look like academic papers, formatted and written like academic papers start popping up all over the place but they will just be generated nonsense.

So I will need to go to the journal's webpage (if they have one) and look up the paper to see if they really published it before I read anything (if the journal lets you do that without subscribing)

And then I'll need to also check if the journal is a real one too.

I wish James and Tina were real.

I hate this so much.

What *is* harmful is collecting established colonies. Worse? An establish colony hardly ever thrives after being collected, the trauma is just too much. The workers never adjust. It's not worth it.

So, if you want to keep ants learn when your local species fly and catch those queens. Don't feel bad about catching two or three for each colony you intend to raise. (Queens often randomly die early on.)

Put them in test tubes and there begins a multi-year commitment to an incredible pet.

Exciting ant queen collecting trip in AZ. Why does it feel like all the coolest ants are in the South and South West. It's not fair.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV1CkkkKbOM

We discuss the environmental impact of antkeeping often and some people worry that collecting queens could harm ant populations.

The consensus seems to be that, unless antkeeping becomes much much much more popular attracting industrial levels of collecting, taking alate queens is probably the least harmful way to get an ant colony.

Queens are released in the 100s and most are eaten by birds, or never find a place to nest. A queen collector denies a bird or lizard a meal mostly.