Back in Black

10 responses to “Back in Black”

1. 

   PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE

   Jun 5, 2008 at 5:51 am

   Just ordered one last week =)
   After discovering it on your photos, couldn’ t help.

   "Perfect office pets" for sure. But even better for class room.
   It would be perfect for presenting ants and collective behavior to kids at school.Since i am preparing a talk on whale sharks, i thought…let’ s introduce them to the smaller one too.
   And this thing is just Perfect for moving the little ladies =)

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2. 

   defeated system

   Jun 5, 2008 at 6:39 am

   very cool.

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3. 

   Johan of Denmark

   Jun 5, 2008 at 7:52 am

   Much like humans, no? Only sans the books and stuff… 😉

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4. 

   TomiTapio

   Jun 5, 2008 at 12:33 pm

   Interesting gel-land.

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5. 

   jurvetson

   Jun 5, 2008 at 10:56 pm

   Eppie: lessons like "don’t attack the termites… it’s a losing battle". They are in a plastic container. It’s blue gel lit by blue LEDs. The gel was developed by NASA and contains all of the food and water that they need.

   Johan: Yes… With humans, an analogy can be drawn to culture and suprahuman emergence over the Internet. Human communication sets the clock rate for the human hive (and the Interet expands the fanout and clock rate). Norms, beliefs, philosophy and various societal behaviors seem to change at a glacial pace, so that we don’t notice them day-to-day (slow clock rate). But when we look back, we think and act very differently as a society than we did in the 50’s.

   PhotonQ: fantastic. Try to spend some time with them for the first couple days. For a few hours, they get oriented, and then you’ll see them dig out to the edge. They feverishly dig at first and explore the corners of their world. Once they dig out the outer edge, they slow down dramatically and huddle a bunch at the bottom (seen here in this photo). It is as if they can tell there is no way out, without having to explore the middle zone of their world… and then they shift into exploring the skies and building ramps to probe at the edges of the roof…

   Oh, and if you really want to see some funky patterns emerge, let them run amok in the sugar jar… et voilà, a neocortex emerges =)

   

   "Ants have algorithms. If you think about an ant colony, it’s a computing device"

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6. 

   defeated system

   Jun 6, 2008 at 6:48 pm

   jurvetson, I checked the website but, it didn’t say how long the food gel will last. Do u have any idea? I am thinking about getting one. I have an Ecosphere, its a similar idea but with shrimp.

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7. 

   jurvetson

   Jun 6, 2008 at 7:11 pm

   The gel lasts for years (after 3 years, I see no evaporation of my old one). The limit comes from the ant’s appetite. They will all die off in a few months with no queen to produce new ladies. I have cycled two batches through one farm, and would guess it can support three or four (in series… if you try two at a time, get ready for a brutal battle). After a couple cycles though, there is less room for new tunnel activity…

   The Ecosphere was my first office pet as well…

   

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8. 

   msamaclean ©

   Jun 7, 2008 at 9:58 pm

   The perfect ‘special ed’ room pets, too! I’m getting one! The S E classroom is definitely a locus of learning, all be it, with a different set of perameters, but the kids need as many stimuli as we can provide to further their education.
   By the way, great shot!

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9. 

   tokyo ninja

   Jun 12, 2008 at 8:18 pm

   Cool picture!

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10. 

    PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE

    Aug 3, 2008 at 5:43 pm

    Here they are, finally ! =)

    

    This is great Steve.
    I spent most of the night, while waiting for Falcon 1,looking at them.
    Being able to see the "underworld" is fascinating.

    (Better than sheeps….but the thing is…created the "opposit effect". I want to watch and learn more from them, each time now. =P )

    Some experiments.

    I am using 2 very small ones, of the size of a usb key. (Perfect to keep ants on you, anytime…you never know =P)
    And two other, bigger, but not as big as the antfarm, for now.

    I am experimenting with different kinds of species, i can find in the area. Before adding the most adapted species, in the big antworks.

    I’ ll try the "sugar jar-neocortex ‘s algorithm" this week ; )

    Reply