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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>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:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Termite#/media/File:Flying_Termites_after_rain.jpg">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Termite#/media/File:Flying_Termites_after_rain.jpg</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><img border=0 width=316 height=282 style='width:3.2916in;height:2.9375in' id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.jpg@01DD6339.2F8E6610"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>It was a most remarkable sight. I eventually found one of the colonies inside a rotting stump, over on the Stanford campus.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><img border=0 width=441 height=337 style='width:4.5937in;height:3.5104in' id="_x0000_i1026" src="cid:image002.jpg@01DD633B.0A8D0FE0"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></body></html>