4 ms·

"If death is instantaneous, such as when you slap the mosquito on your skin, there is little room for suffering." This assumes that mosquitos perceive time as

"If death is instantaneous, such as when you slap the mosquito on your skin, there is little room for suffering." This assumes that mosquitos perceive time as we do. While all living things operate with the same molecular building blocks and physical laws, I don't know that perceiving time is as low level as that, so qualitatively what is an instant for us could be a long time for a much smaller organism.

mbg721 3y ago
This initially took me down a road of silly mysticism, like thinking about a fly with a gazillion images in its eyes, but even humans don't always perceive time exactly the same way. Who hasn't had a meeting that felt like it would never end, or said "five more minutes" to a toddler?
- m3047 3y ago
  The perception thing is tricky. How do you even know another human perceives things as you do? AI teaches us some truths through its failures and successes. It's a fallacy to think that we only think with our "mind". We think when we "try something out"; we think with our "gut"; we "take a walk"; we "sleep on it". We toss rocks, fiddle with rosaries, bow to mecca. All of these engage other parts of our body, even parts of our environment. (How do people make friends with a river or the wind? How do they perceive seasons? What is the epistomological basis of "Saturnine"? Why do we name some inanimate objects, in particular ships; and why feminine?) By my lights if you carry your smartphone all day, it's a part of you; I avoid making it a habit for this very reason. I've had serious astigmatism my whole life. I also managed to function uncorrected into my forties. My "vision" was extremely good, especially in a natural environment. Astigmatism means everything isn't in focus at one place at once, and there are interference patterns; so I'm hard wired to see certain patterns. So imagine that fly's eyes. The individual units don't focus to the best of my understandings. Think about them as individually manufactured, and maybe the quality control isn't what you think it is. Maybe it's expected that some focus near and some focus far; maybe some even suffer from e.g. astigmatic conditions. If AI can classify images from raw JPEG images, it's reasonable to suspect that it can integrate sensor data from multiple heterogenous units incorporating light sensors. So at some level it builds a model. The question has to be how much introspection the control unit can bring to bear on that model and does that help it interact with its environment in a more efficient or effective way.
SoftTalker 3y ago
Is there any basis to believe that mosquitos perceive time at all?
- psychoslave 3y ago
  Maybe you should read the article? :)

mbg721 3y ago

This initially took me down a road of silly mysticism, like thinking about a fly with a gazillion images in its eyes, but even humans don't always perceive time exactly the same way. Who hasn't had a meeting that felt like it would never end, or said "five more minutes" to a toddler?

m3047 3y ago
The perception thing is tricky. How do you even know another human perceives things as you do? AI teaches us some truths through its failures and successes. It's a fallacy to think that we only think with our "mind". We think when we "try something out"; we think with our "gut"; we "take a walk"; we "sleep on it". We toss rocks, fiddle with rosaries, bow to mecca. All of these engage other parts of our body, even parts of our environment. (How do people make friends with a river or the wind? How do they perceive seasons? What is the epistomological basis of "Saturnine"? Why do we name some inanimate objects, in particular ships; and why feminine?) By my lights if you carry your smartphone all day, it's a part of you; I avoid making it a habit for this very reason. I've had serious astigmatism my whole life. I also managed to function uncorrected into my forties. My "vision" was extremely good, especially in a natural environment. Astigmatism means everything isn't in focus at one place at once, and there are interference patterns; so I'm hard wired to see certain patterns. So imagine that fly's eyes. The individual units don't focus to the best of my understandings. Think about them as individually manufactured, and maybe the quality control isn't what you think it is. Maybe it's expected that some focus near and some focus far; maybe some even suffer from e.g. astigmatic conditions. If AI can classify images from raw JPEG images, it's reasonable to suspect that it can integrate sensor data from multiple heterogenous units incorporating light sensors. So at some level it builds a model. The question has to be how much introspection the control unit can bring to bear on that model and does that help it interact with its environment in a more efficient or effective way.

SoftTalker 3y ago

Is there any basis to believe that mosquitos perceive time at all?

psychoslave 3y ago
Maybe you should read the article? :)