5 ms·
When I think of insects, I see them as tiny microcontrollers. In my head bees have a little shift register to measure time. While ants have control over each
by fullstop 11mo ago
When I think of insects, I see them as tiny microcontrollers. In my head bees have a little shift register to measure time.
While ants have control over each limb, they mostly move by rotating two tripods one at a time. It's like they turn on an output for three legs, turn off the output, and then turn on the output for the other three legs.
Ants can walk backward, though, so perhaps it is more like a half-bridge rectifier with multiple channels.
They're like little organic ICs.
- nhecker 11mo agoI read a paper long ago (so there's no chance of my recalling the source!) and one of the takeaways was that in a cockroach one of the neural ganglia basically had a binary "run!" mode that was flipped on instantly if sense nerves very close to it were triggered. So when researchers tapped or blew air on the rears of the roaches the roach in question would sprint away, its powerful legs being efficiently driven at full tilt by this little sprinting circuit without needing any input or interaction from the more complex main brain. Imagine getting used to that effect! "Ahhh! Why am I suddenly running and where am I going to steer this runaway body?"
- fullstop 11mo agoThat is so cool. > "Ahhh! Why am I suddenly running and where am I going to steer this runaway body?" I wonder if it's tied to the optical sensors to steer toward darker places.
- jlawson 11mo agoHumans have that too. Startle response, withdrawing from pain (hot stove), blink response upon incoming object - all these happen without involving the higher brainstem at all. I think some of them barely even connect with the brain.
- rkomorn 11mo agoIsn't this part of the comment thread basically about reflexes?
- sitkack 11mo agoWas it one of https://web.archive.org/web/20100612184109/https://nelson.beckman.illinois.edu/courses/neuroethol/models/cockroach_escape/roach_escape.html https://web.archive.org/web/20100612184109/https://nelson.be... Neural Circuit Recording from an Intact Cockroach Nervous System https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3969889/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3969889/ Descending influences on escape behavior and motor pattern in the cockroach https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11536194/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11536194/ Multisensory control of escape in the cockroach Periplaneta americana https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00192001 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00192001
- ACCount37 11mo agoWorking in embedded gave me a lot of respect for insects. They can fit so much raw function into a body that's smaller than most standalone ICs. Just imagine how cool would it be to have programmable bees.
- fullstop 11mo agoThat would make an interesting game.
- thewebguyd 11mo agoBlack Mirror did an episode on programmable bees. S3E6
- jacquesm 11mo agoIt's the power-to-weight ratio that is really mind boggling. Those creatures are strong!
- mikkupikku 11mo agoI don't know much about insects, but spiders at least seem to be much more than mere automatons. The way jumping spiders are aware of their environment makes them feel much closer to a dog than to a microcontroller.
- fullstop 11mo agoThey have more peripherals, sram, and flash space.
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