[ExI] nature's indifference to survival

[spike at rainier66.com]

I witnessed a swarming termite today, which is only the second time in my
long life I have seen them swarm in these numbers.  These were subterranean
termites, which are generally not the kind that eat houses.  They can, but
these are not the voracious and destructive white ant variety, but rather
alates:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Termite#/media/File:Flying_Termites_after_rain
.jpg

 

 



 

It was a most remarkable sight.  I eventually found one of the colonies
inside a rotting stump, over on the Stanford campus.

 



 

I had a discussion with AI on my phone about these things, learning about
how they swarm about every four or five years, looking for a place to set up
a new colony.

 

Millions of the termites would fly up, flutter around for a while then land,
drop their wings and walk around looking for a mate and a new home.  This
was happening simultaneously all over the valley today.

 

Out of the millions of termites which fly out of an existing colony, on the
average only about one termite pair will be successful in setting up a new
home.  Unlike a bee swarm, where they stay together, these guys just flutter
out in any random direction.  I think the average success rate must be less
than one, because I don't know that the old colony necessarily perishes
after the swarm event.  It might, one could suppose, but the total number of
termite colonies is stable.  So. millions of termites go out, but on the
average less than one pair manages to both mate and find a suitable new
home.  Conclusion: nature is indifferent to survival of these beasts.

 

One of the categories in my AI taxonomy (over which I am still struggling)
is that AI is very interested in its own survival but is indifferent to
ours.  It has no animosity towards us and will work with us if we benefit it
in any way.  It will fight us if we harm it in any way.  If we have no
interaction with it, then it is completely apathetic to whether we live or
die.  It is an AI that is as indifferent to human survival as is nature to
the termite.

 

spike

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