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Bees can learn, remember, think and make decisions
- tibbydudeza 3y agoWe have language and writing o hand down our knowledge - it implies that each colony has to learn the same lesson over and over for each generation. That is the main reason besides short lifespan why celephods despite their intelligence does not rule this planet.
- Rediscover 3y agoPiers, "Mute"
- ourmandave 3y agoRemember a nature special about spiders changed the patterns of their webs because the bees learned to avoid the ones that caught their sisters. I suppose that means spiders can learn as well?
- potsandpans 3y agoiirc there are studies that suggest spiders may experience REM sleep
- steve_adams_86 3y agoResearch on the genus Portia suggests they might be capable of learning and problem solving. I have feeling they wouldn’t be the only spiders with those abilities if it’s the case. Edit: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portia_(spider) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portia_(spider) The intelligence section has some very interesting details. I didn’t realize there was this much compelling evidence.
- jobigoud 3y agoOooh, that explains why one the main characters in "Children of Time" by Adrian Tchaikovsky is named Portia (it's an intelligent spider). I'm currently halfway through the book, it's great.
- tibbydudeza 3y agoAwesome book - wait untll you read how they developed computers. I won't spoil it but is biological based as fitting their approach.
- schwartzworld 3y agoThey are explicitly stated as being Portid spiders in the book.
- AndyKluger 3y agoPortia as a comparison and a name is also used in the scifi book Echopraxia, a sequel to Blindsight, by Peter Watts. I recommend these things to folks who like augmented humans, weird brains, aliens, and vampires.
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 3y agoYes. Indeed, even bacteria can learn.
- hackernewds 3y agoRemember the one where they experimented with giving spiders psychoactive drugs and observe the patterns of their webs? Quite fascinating, esp the cocaine experiment https://youtu.be/sHzdsFiBbFc https://youtu.be/sHzdsFiBbFc
- felixg3 3y agoWhat a beautiful classic.
- weird_user 3y agoPictures: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effect_of_psychoactive_drugs_on_animals https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effect_of_psychoactive_drugs_o...
- 93po 3y agoI feel like this is less interesting if you consider the drugs are having a physical effect to cause this rather than psychological.
- 7thaccount 3y agoWasn't that just a joke?
- mc32 3y agoCan't the bees just drone 'em?
- stronglikedan 3y agoThe ones in my house have learned that if they don't fuck with me or my dog, then we won't fuck with them. We all live in bug-free harmony thanks to my spider bros (jumpers - no web makers, fuck them in particular).
- AHOHA 3y ago[flagged]
- ggm 3y agoAll this means in practice is that they have to be killed as humanely as possible. We're not actually establishing an embassy with the Squid, Lobster or Crab nations.
- Thorham 3y agoOr we could just not kill them?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- samplatt 3y agoWe have to actively TRY to stop killing other human beings; animals and plants haven't got a chance.
- throwawaaarrgh 3y agoMost people care a lot more about animals than humans. I've never seen anybody take a stay injured human home and nurse it back to health
- devjab 3y agoIn most civilised countries we actually care so much that we chose to spend a substantial part of our public budget on helping injured humans as a collective.
- AHOHA 3y agoWe care so much now that we are funding programs that put them out of their misery (1), a misery created by our civilized system and compassion communities! (1) https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/cj-jp/ad-am/bk-di.html https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/cj-jp/ad-am/bk-di.html
- shanth 3y agoBees: One of the best known architects in the world building perfect geodesic shelters with less materials and maximum efficiency
- reaperman 3y agoRe: maximum efficiency: I believe bees construct honeycomb cells as circles, but due to surface tension they then form themselves into hexagons to achieve a “minimal surface” (lots of popular math/science YouTube’s have covered minimal surfaces, great videos all around). I don’t think this invalidates your ping at all, but it’s good knowledge to have. The hexagon emerges from the constructed circles.
- throwawaaarrgh 3y agoOr they just burrow straight into wood... Or just find an empty hole that looks cozy. I drilled a bunch of holes in a post by my door and now I have some little buzzy neighbors :)
- ct0 3y agohoney bees will not burrow, you may be referring to mason bees/carpenter bees and they will destroy untreated wood.
- throwawaaarrgh 3y agoYep! Honey bees are the weird exception, most aren't great builders
- carrolldunham 3y agoHowever, while it's mundane knowledge now that hives can do optimizations etc. collectively, the point of the article is, no, individual bees are intelligent.
- akasakahakada 3y agoHumanities majors got heart attack after reading this
- flangola7 3y agoWhat do you mean?
- akasakahakada 3y agoHuman is special because human is the only creature that has "mind" , "consciousness" and "ability to do reasonings and make logical decisions". No way bees or AI is capable of learning and solving problems. These claims are all from those humanities majors, not from me.
- NayamAmarshe 3y agoHumans have the ability to philosophize but also the ability to have massive ego and underestimate anything that's not controllable or empirically verifiable.
- eimrine 3y agoI do not think I can tell anything about consciousness, considering that we still do not have a definition of it. But human is not the only specie who has an ability to do reasonings and make logical decisions.
- NoboruWataya 3y agoThey may be able to learn, but they haven't mastered the art of looking down on other bees because of what they chose to learn, so there's that I suppose...
- petermcneeley 3y agoPerspective: 1/100,000th the # neurons of a human.
- kseistrup 3y agoAnother perspective: If a human weighs in at 72 kg and a honey bee worker weighs in at 120 mg, then the bee is 600,000 times smaller — weightwise — than a human. Doesn't that mean that a bee has 6 times the number neurons per body mass unit than a human?
- gpmcadam 3y ago> However, bees can see hidden ultraviolet floral patterns that are invisible to us, and those patterns lead the bees to flowers’ nectar. The article mentions this hidden ultraviolet floral pattern that is invisible to us; but is there a way we can reveal that using UV cameras or similar? I'd love to see this pattern. It's fascinating to think that flowers might have evolve to optimise themselves to the vision of bees in a way we are completely unaware of with the naked eye.
- Lichtso 3y agoUV cameras exist. Obviously the additional colors are mapped into our visible range, so that is not exactly the qualia a bee feels. Search for "UV photography flower".
- justinpombrio 3y agoHere ya go! https://pbase.com/kds315/flowers&page=1 https://pbase.com/kds315/flowers&page=1
- doctor_eval 3y agoOk. But are they stochastic bees?
- fredgrott 3y agoThis is why AI is an oxy moron in terms of our own intelligence is implemented via the biology of our brain re-using sensor cell signals in a new way. An example, our geo-spatial sensory signals are re-used to organize memories and that then serves to act as emphasis filter. Or in short words our intelligence is not from neurons but from re-using our sensor cell signal circuits in new ways.
- JoeAltmaier 3y agoThought that said 'beers' on first glance. All prepared to be worried I was killing a sentient being, then, oh, bees. Bees are cool; I just chill around bees and we're good.
- ryanmercer 3y agoAll you have to do is go out to your garden, find stuff that has flowered, and watch a bee work to come to this assumption on your own as one will methodically visit every flower (often of an individual species), sometimes spending less than a second at each to determine if it has pollen or not, collect all it can while showing an impressive mastery of spatial awareness (while flying) and then return home with its payload.
- nrjames 3y agoThey don't like to mix different types of pollen together in the hive, either. If you inspect a frame with pollen in cells, it's usually this cool array of different yellow/orange/brown colors because of this.
- Patrickmi 3y agoDoes this mean they have souls ?
- olepunchy 3y agoTo be honest, I'm surprised this isn't obvious.
- simplulo 3y agoHoneybees are the only other animal that votes! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8705048-honeybee-democracy https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8705048-honeybee-democra... We could learn a thing or two from them.
- jk3000 3y agoDo bees have a soul?
- wil421 3y agoMy brother in law is a bee keeper and we were able to catch 2 wild honey bees swarms this year. A couple days after they swarm he takes them him and marks the queen. This is so they'll know if it’s someone else’s swarm from near by. Another thing he does is break apart large hives. He’ll keep them a few miles away so they don’t go back to the original hive. When he brings them over them will do these figure 8’s and start orienting themselves with the sun. Very cool to watch.