Does anyone know how the nucleus destruction happens? Is there any analogy to regularization/sparsification in machine learning? Is there some kind of process that destroys the nucleus of the least useful neurons?
How tiny wasps cope with being smaller than amoebas
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Re: How tiny wasps cope with being smaller than amoebas
#12On the opposite side of things, here are some of the largest single-celled organisms:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenophyophore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caulerpa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valonia_ventricosa
Re: How tiny wasps cope with being smaller than amoebas
#13Wow, these little guys are incredible! I had no idea such complexity could evolve at that scale. I think these species deserve a mention in science classrooms.
Well as long as you make it clear that they were created that size because God likes a challenge - rather than any sort of adaptation to their environment - that should be OK
Re: How tiny wasps cope with being smaller than amoebas
#14Does anyone know how the nucleus destruction happens? Is there any analogy to regularization/sparsification in machine learning? Is there some kind of process that destroys the nucleus of the least useful neurons?
The hypothesis advanced by the article is that there is no loss of function. The neurons are packed with enough proteins to function for five days. The nuclei are just dead weight.
In mammals, red blood cells don't have nuclei either and can live up to 90 days in physiologic conditions.
Educated guess resp. nuclei destruction mechanism: probably through partial apoptosis (nucleus fragmentation), autophagia, and/or expulsion and phagocytosis by other cells.
Re: How tiny wasps cope with being smaller than amoebas
#15What are the major technical barriers before we can identify the input and output channels to this insect's brain and start iterating through all possible input values, recording the corresponding output values? And once we can do that, could we use that data to fly a virtual insect around a virtual world?
I think we've yet to match the (information processing ability)/(energy consumption x size) ratio of wetware.
Re: How tiny wasps cope with being smaller than amoebas
#16What are the major technical barriers before we can identify the input and output channels to this insect's brain and start iterating through all possible input values, recording the corresponding output values? And once we can do that, could we use that data to fly a virtual insect around a virtual world?
This was one of my first thoughts as well, sort of. Alternatively, is it possible to model each neuron when there are only around 8k? Maybe estimate the visual, audio, and tactile bandwidth of the wasp and feed the simulated neurons a stream of simulated environmental data and just let the connections evolve.
Re: How tiny wasps cope with being smaller than amoebas
#17this is rather cool but just to nitpick "one single cell" does not always imply "small" there are a few which are visible to the naked eye (think eggs)
Do you have any references for the egg thing? I have a hard time picturing that? Aren't there individual cells inside a chicken egg (before it starts developing?)
Re: How tiny wasps cope with being smaller than amoebas
#18What are the major technical barriers before we can identify the input and output channels to this insect's brain and start iterating through all possible input values, recording the corresponding output values? And once we can do that, could we use that data to fly a virtual insect around a virtual world?
I was interested in this too.
Shallow googling found, that there are problems with emulating even more simple organisms: http://lesswrong.com/lw/88g/whole_brain_emulation_looking_at...
Re: How tiny wasps cope with being smaller than amoebas
#19What are the major technical barriers before we can identify the input and output channels to this insect's brain and start iterating through all possible input values, recording the corresponding output values? And once we can do that, could we use that data to fly a virtual insect around a virtual world?
I think we've yet to match the (information processing ability)/(energy consumption x size) ratio of wetware.
Sure, but we can fire up a room full of servers instead.
Re: How tiny wasps cope with being smaller than amoebas
#20Wow, these little guys are incredible! I had no idea such complexity could evolve at that scale. I think these species deserve a mention in science classrooms.
Well as long as you make it clear that they were created that size because God likes a challenge - rather than any sort of adaptation to their environment - that should be OK
Hmmm, downvotes. Hey Fred! Get in here, and bring the spare sensor filaments. I think we have some sarcasm detectors on the fritz.