4 ms·

Bats use private and social information as they hunt

67 points by dnetesn 7y ago

matteuan 7y ago
I bet european bats have now serious problem hunting because of GDPR
- simion314 7y ago
  Every bat or animal can listen for free , there is no hidden tracker that aggregates everything into big data and then mines it to make money most of the time by exploring someones private data. I can go on a street and heart maybe a person conversation but I can't hear everyone on all the streets conversation, you are trying to make fun of a good effort to stop big private data aggregation that is used in undisclosed ways and without permissions most of the time against the source.
  - whenchamenia 7y ago
    Just wait, interfaces that can hear what you hear exist, as is the tech to digitize and broadcast it. So in theory, you could spychip all the mammals. With clever genetic editing, you could likely build it in in a similar way to the famous passive embassy bugs. Speaking of insects... /foilhat
lacampbell 7y ago
Given this is Hacker News I am waiting for someone to propose 'nationalize the bats' as a solution.
- brennebeck 7y ago
  Why? I get you’re being flip, but I don’t get the connection? Politically, HN tends to be more libertarian (gross generalization, obviously).
  - whenchamenia 7y ago
    I thought we were anarcho-capitolists just masqurading as liberals to subvert the obvious bias in venture capitol spending. I struggle to list any 'woke' SV companies after the funding stopped and the need to be profitable kicked in. Most politics is just whatever serves your needs in the end for most people.
    - lacampbell 7y ago
      Most politics is just whatever serves your needs in the end for most people Hear, hear! Political discussions online used to be much more fun until I realised this.
  - jMyles 7y ago
    I thought we were an autonomous collective?
  - lacampbell 7y ago
    HN used to be libertarian I think. Tech did in general. But I suspect it's not libertarians writing long drawn out codes of conduct in the past few years. I often read that Facebook should be nationalized here. It's like reading dialogue from villains in an Ayn Rand novel.
gerbilly 7y ago
While this is almost lost knowledge these days, humans and other animals have always paid attention to each other to find out what is going in on around them. The nature (or absence of) bird or animal calls or activity can tell you that there is a large predator in the area.¹ Some animal calls are even specific to the type of threat as well. It has even been proposed by some linguists that prairie dog calls satisfy enough of the requirements to be considered language.² 1: https://birdlanguage.com/products/what-the-robin-knows/ https://birdlanguage.com/products/what-the-robin-knows/ 2: https://medium.com/health-and-biological-research-news/prairie-dog-chatter-the-science-behind-a-new-language-9144ace4114f https://medium.com/health-and-biological-research-news/prair...
grawprog 7y ago
When we were doing bat surveys most nights, after we caught the first few bats, we would watch later ones actively avoiding the mist nets we'd set up as the ones we caught called both from the nets and from the bags we had them in. It was also known at the time we were doing our work bats communicate feeding areas to each other and are extremely vocal in their hibernacula and roosting sites.
LinuxBender 7y ago
Somewhat off topic, semi-related, I have a bat that thinks I control the weather. If it gets too hot or cold, it will go just outside my window and squeak at me. There are patterns to it's communication, though I have no idea what exactly it is saying. I can talk to it and it talks back. Obviously we don't understand each other. I can tell it "get back to work" (taking out mosquito's) and it will leave. I think it understands tone of human voice.
will_hoskings 7y ago
The bats should carry around a big banner with a warning: Are we allowed to collect information about you? :D

67 points by dnetesn 7y ago

matteuan 7y ago

I bet european bats have now serious problem hunting because of GDPR

simion314 7y ago
Every bat or animal can listen for free , there is no hidden tracker that aggregates everything into big data and then mines it to make money most of the time by exploring someones private data. I can go on a street and heart maybe a person conversation but I can't hear everyone on all the streets conversation, you are trying to make fun of a good effort to stop big private data aggregation that is used in undisclosed ways and without permissions most of the time against the source.
- whenchamenia 7y ago
  Just wait, interfaces that can hear what you hear exist, as is the tech to digitize and broadcast it. So in theory, you could spychip all the mammals. With clever genetic editing, you could likely build it in in a similar way to the famous passive embassy bugs. Speaking of insects... /foilhat

lacampbell 7y ago

Given this is Hacker News I am waiting for someone to propose 'nationalize the bats' as a solution.

brennebeck 7y ago
Why? I get you’re being flip, but I don’t get the connection? Politically, HN tends to be more libertarian (gross generalization, obviously).
- whenchamenia 7y ago
  I thought we were anarcho-capitolists just masqurading as liberals to subvert the obvious bias in venture capitol spending. I struggle to list any 'woke' SV companies after the funding stopped and the need to be profitable kicked in. Most politics is just whatever serves your needs in the end for most people.
  - lacampbell 7y ago
    Most politics is just whatever serves your needs in the end for most people Hear, hear! Political discussions online used to be much more fun until I realised this.
- jMyles 7y ago
  I thought we were an autonomous collective?
- lacampbell 7y ago
  HN used to be libertarian I think. Tech did in general. But I suspect it's not libertarians writing long drawn out codes of conduct in the past few years. I often read that Facebook should be nationalized here. It's like reading dialogue from villains in an Ayn Rand novel.

gerbilly 7y ago

While this is almost lost knowledge these days, humans and other animals have always paid attention to each other to find out what is going in on around them. The nature (or absence of) bird or animal calls or activity can tell you that there is a large predator in the area.¹ Some animal calls are even specific to the type of threat as well. It has even been proposed by some linguists that prairie dog calls satisfy enough of the requirements to be considered language.² 1: https://birdlanguage.com/products/what-the-robin-knows/ https://birdlanguage.com/products/what-the-robin-knows/ 2: https://medium.com/health-and-biological-research-news/prairie-dog-chatter-the-science-behind-a-new-language-9144ace4114f https://medium.com/health-and-biological-research-news/prair...

grawprog 7y ago

When we were doing bat surveys most nights, after we caught the first few bats, we would watch later ones actively avoiding the mist nets we'd set up as the ones we caught called both from the nets and from the bags we had them in. It was also known at the time we were doing our work bats communicate feeding areas to each other and are extremely vocal in their hibernacula and roosting sites.

LinuxBender 7y ago

Somewhat off topic, semi-related, I have a bat that thinks I control the weather. If it gets too hot or cold, it will go just outside my window and squeak at me. There are patterns to it's communication, though I have no idea what exactly it is saying. I can talk to it and it talks back. Obviously we don't understand each other. I can tell it "get back to work" (taking out mosquito's) and it will leave. I think it understands tone of human voice.

will_hoskings 7y ago

The bats should carry around a big banner with a warning: Are we allowed to collect information about you? :D