[ExI] bees

[spike]

From: extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf
Of Anders Sandberg
Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2015 1:00 AM
To: extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
Subject: Re: [ExI] bees

 

On 2015-12-03 05:49, spike wrote:

Now of course I start thinking of ways to measure how bees are feeling.
Perhaps they fly a little differently when well-fed and fully healthy.  We
could raise some in isolation and feed them all the best pollen, try to
create a control group.  Then make some kind of optical measurement device,
a camera which measures flight speed, oscillation rates, hover times, and
anything else we can figure out how to reduce to a matrix of data using
optical data.  Then we compare to domestic bees and wild bees.


>.Clearly there must be some behavioural signs you are picking up, if you
are not imagining it. I can imagine taking a bundle of data of perky and
tired bees and using machine learning to categorize them - but that requires
having samples of the kinds. One could also do clustering of their behaviour
and see if there are clusters that look suspicious - but again, if all the
bees in the back yard are tired this will not show much. 

I don't have a good feeling for the Bay Area ecosystem, but it always struck
me as having unusually few insects around. I was so happy seeing that moth
larva with you and the kid last time I was over. 




-- 
Dr Anders Sandberg
 
 
Ja, the insect population and diversity here is not nearly as good for
amateur entomology as where I misspent my childhood and youth in Florida.
Wildlife of a wide variety of genus and species were abundant in that
friendly environment.  The buggery there was unsurpassed.
 
s
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