4 ms·

Up next, a story about how ants act as 'engineers' - choosing soft-enough-to-dig ground, that is not waterlogged, to build their nests. After that, maybe a sto

Up next, a story about how ants act as 'engineers' - choosing soft-enough-to-dig ground, that is not waterlogged, to build their nests. After that, maybe a story about plant 'engineers', growing toward the sun.

lucianbr 2y ago
All the while programmers are not engineers but craftsmen, because... we don't use slide rules or something.
- Avicebron 2y ago
  I think it's more that we don't follow ethical rules or something
  - bobsmooth 2y ago
    It's because there's no liability. In my country you need liability insurance to be an engineer.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    - bee_rider 2y ago
      In the US we have the concept of a Professional Engineering license, but most people who get engineering degrees don’t end up needing one. Around here is it more like… you need a license for your signature to mean anything while surveying land, or something like that.
      - bobsmooth 2y ago
        In my country you can't promote yourself as an engineer unless you have a license. You also technically can't have a job title with engineer in it but that's not really enforced.
metalman 2y ago
ok, here is something like that I watch my horse, choose to roll,in rub over, and generaly luxurate in bayberry shrubs, which are very aromatic,and pay by bieng reduced to kindling other surviving bayberry bushes, that were used by early european's in Canada for the wax coating of the "berrys" in candle making, are used by birds as food, the berrys ripen in late fall.....just before the song birds migrate, all of the berrys vanishing over 2 days, the high energy wax coating, providing a strong start to an arduous trip, and a free long range dispersment for the long suffering bayberrys......which I have used the self same leaves as flavoring in food everything is working a "plan" man, all part of a vast,ancient,intricate,fusion powered, network, we and all we do is just a side hussle for nature and here in Canada, the term "engineer" is legaly exclusive to the guys with the iron rings, or the few with the stripy hats
GeoAtreides 2y ago
> A multidisciplinary team of researchers from the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography at the University of Oxford, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, the Jane Goodall Institute in Tanzania, the University of Algarve and the University of Porto in Portugal, and the University of Leipzig, so, i have a question; do you think the team of researchers above have no idea what they're doing? these are the people that studied and published the posted research. Do their credentials mean nothing to you? i so despise this kind of drive-by comments, that just react to the title without reading the article, without being curious at all, empty snarkiness just for a bit of extra karma points. And in the process casting doubt and derisiveness on the scientific process and on the people that dedicate their life to extending human knowledge.
- bee_rider 2y ago
  In the researchers’ publication, they didn’t substantiate the claim that chimpanzees are doing engineering (actually they didn’t even define what engineering is or why it would be significant if the chimpanzees were doing it). They document some interesting tool-making behavior, that the chimpanzees are somewhat picky about the material properties of the sticks they use to catch ants.
  - GeoAtreides 2y ago
    am I taking crazy pills? the researchers' publication[1] is literally called: "Engineering skills in the manufacture of tools by wild chimpanzees" Literally "Engineering skills". The graphical abstract: https://www.cell.com/cms/10.1016/j.isci.2025.112158/asset/0effe8a7-6b76-4395-b576-65f262d8069c/main.assets/fx1_lrg.jpg https://www.cell.com/cms/10.1016/j.isci.2025.112158/asset/0e... > "Chimpanzees show a degree of engineering acumen in the selection of plant materials for toolmaking." > engineering acumen [1] https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(25)00419-5 https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(25)00419-5
    - Hobadee 2y ago
      Just because it's in the title, doesn't mean the paper supports it. I just skimmed the summary, but didn't notice any proof of "engineering". How do we know that chimpanzees weren't just selecting materials that had a good outcome in the past via trial and error? Or know that "more flexible=more food"? I would say that true engineering requires an inate understanding of the concepts going into the design, and I didn't notice anything in the summary to support that claim.

lucianbr 2y ago

All the while programmers are not engineers but craftsmen, because... we don't use slide rules or something.

Avicebron 2y ago
I think it's more that we don't follow ethical rules or something
- bobsmooth 2y ago
  It's because there's no liability. In my country you need liability insurance to be an engineer.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - bee_rider 2y ago
    In the US we have the concept of a Professional Engineering license, but most people who get engineering degrees don’t end up needing one. Around here is it more like… you need a license for your signature to mean anything while surveying land, or something like that.
    - bobsmooth 2y ago
      In my country you can't promote yourself as an engineer unless you have a license. You also technically can't have a job title with engineer in it but that's not really enforced.

metalman 2y ago

ok, here is something like that I watch my horse, choose to roll,in rub over, and generaly luxurate in bayberry shrubs, which are very aromatic,and pay by bieng reduced to kindling other surviving bayberry bushes, that were used by early european's in Canada for the wax coating of the "berrys" in candle making, are used by birds as food, the berrys ripen in late fall.....just before the song birds migrate, all of the berrys vanishing over 2 days, the high energy wax coating, providing a strong start to an arduous trip, and a free long range dispersment for the long suffering bayberrys......which I have used the self same leaves as flavoring in food everything is working a "plan" man, all part of a vast,ancient,intricate,fusion powered, network, we and all we do is just a side hussle for nature and here in Canada, the term "engineer" is legaly exclusive to the guys with the iron rings, or the few with the stripy hats

GeoAtreides 2y ago

> A multidisciplinary team of researchers from the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography at the University of Oxford, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, the Jane Goodall Institute in Tanzania, the University of Algarve and the University of Porto in Portugal, and the University of Leipzig, so, i have a question; do you think the team of researchers above have no idea what they're doing? these are the people that studied and published the posted research. Do their credentials mean nothing to you? i so despise this kind of drive-by comments, that just react to the title without reading the article, without being curious at all, empty snarkiness just for a bit of extra karma points. And in the process casting doubt and derisiveness on the scientific process and on the people that dedicate their life to extending human knowledge.

bee_rider 2y ago
In the researchers’ publication, they didn’t substantiate the claim that chimpanzees are doing engineering (actually they didn’t even define what engineering is or why it would be significant if the chimpanzees were doing it). They document some interesting tool-making behavior, that the chimpanzees are somewhat picky about the material properties of the sticks they use to catch ants.
- GeoAtreides 2y ago
  am I taking crazy pills? the researchers' publication[1] is literally called: "Engineering skills in the manufacture of tools by wild chimpanzees" Literally "Engineering skills". The graphical abstract: https://www.cell.com/cms/10.1016/j.isci.2025.112158/asset/0effe8a7-6b76-4395-b576-65f262d8069c/main.assets/fx1_lrg.jpg https://www.cell.com/cms/10.1016/j.isci.2025.112158/asset/0e... > "Chimpanzees show a degree of engineering acumen in the selection of plant materials for toolmaking." > engineering acumen [1] https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(25)00419-5 https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(25)00419-5
  - Hobadee 2y ago
    Just because it's in the title, doesn't mean the paper supports it. I just skimmed the summary, but didn't notice any proof of "engineering". How do we know that chimpanzees weren't just selecting materials that had a good outcome in the past via trial and error? Or know that "more flexible=more food"? I would say that true engineering requires an inate understanding of the concepts going into the design, and I didn't notice anything in the summary to support that claim.