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An ant colony has memories its individual members don’t have (2019)

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Re: An ant colony has memories its individual members don’t have (2019)

#141

Post by thelookingglass »

jakear wrote: post #7
anonytrary wrote: post #2

> Ants use the rate at which they meet and smell other ants, or the chemicals deposited by other ants, to decide what to do next. A neuron uses the rate at which it is stimulated by other neurons to decide whether to fire. In both cases, memory arises from changes in how ants or neurons connect and stimulate each other. Main takeaway, very interesting analogy. Ant colonies are great examples of complex systems with e…

Even more surprising for me is that the queen can live 30+ years.

She's giving Elizabeth a run for her money

Re: An ant colony has memories its individual members don’t have (2019)

#142

Post by anonytrary »

mFixman wrote: post #36

Yesterday there was a link in HN regarding artificial intelligence, and a user raised an interesting question: if a ML algorithm can be considered conscious, could a group of people doing the equivalent calculations by hand be the same? I think that ant example answers that question with a strong "yes".

The group of humans would have no idea what the emergent brain is thinking -- like the cells in our body have no idea what our brains are thinking.

Re: An ant colony has memories its individual members don’t have (2019)

#143

Post by pure-awesome »

ComputerGuru wrote: post #93
pure-awesome wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My goodness, would you look at that! Luckily the paperback is only 1% the price, so solid deal there! I thought it's a data entry error, but no, it looks like that's the legitimate price range for the NEW hardcovers (the actual listed ones are even more!): https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0007JVUSK/ref=dp_ol... It's either a ripoff, or some sort of collector's edition original versions. Though if it were the…

They’re priced by different algorithms that “outbid” each other.

Do they start them at $1'000 and let them bid down from there?

Re: An ant colony has memories its individual members don’t have (2019)

#144

Post by elfexec »

arnoooooo wrote: post #12

I recommend looking up Donald Hoffman's theory of conscious agents. He proposes that all sentient beings are networks of conscious agents, the simplest conscious agent being binary (it has a world, and can only act in two ways). Any composition of conscious agents is itself a conscious agent. Interestingly, "the world" of each conscious agent might be only other conscious agents.

> Any composition of conscious agents is itself a conscious agent.

That's a very reductionist viewpoint and I'm not sure how correct it is. It's like saying water is wet because its hydrogen and oxygen molecules are wet. But who knows, it might turn out to be true. It will be interesting to know what the real cause of consciousness is though. Hopeful the question of consciousness will be definitively answered within our lifetimes.

Re: An ant colony has memories its individual members don’t have (2019)

#145

Post by james_s_tayler »

iRobbery wrote: post #16
jakear wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even more surprising for me is that the queen can live 30+ years.

to my surprise i still watch this youtube channel after seeing a video by accident https://www.youtube.com/user/AntsCanada

RIP Fire Nation.

Re: An ant colony has memories its individual members don’t have (2019)

#146

Post by cttet »

bayesian_horse wrote: post #28
iRobbery wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

to my surprise i still watch this youtube channel after seeing a video by accident https://www.youtube.com/user/AntsCanada

I got over his way of story telling eventually. ;-) But yes, he does great work...

Yeah, me too. I followed him for almost a year but in the end I felt like he tried to make video too frequently and the information concentration is too low.

Re: An ant colony has memories its individual members don’t have (2019)

#148

Post by Psyladine »

ajuc wrote: post #57
lou1306 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of the Chinese Room argument. Basically, it goes like that: I never took any Chinese lesson. However, suppose I obtain a huge instruction manual that tells me exactly which sequence of Chinese characters I should use to reply to any sequence of Chinese characters you (a native Chinese speaker) give me. Do I "know/understand" Chinese?

Yes - the system (you + the book) know Chinese. Let me ask you another question - when I throw a ball at you your subconcious brain has to solve a differential equation to know how to use muscles to catch that ball. Do you know how to catch a ball if you don't know the math but still can catch it?

>Do you know how to catch a ball if you don't know the math but still can catch it?

I posited this years ago and the conclusion is what we call "math" is the linguistic expression of what is already intuitive to us.

The other example I used was a mother cat will seek out a stray kitten...but how can she possibly count & keep track of the number of kittens she should have? The answers are at once obvious but deceptively difficult to put into words.

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