They only seem to be testing individual bees though, not the hive mind.
folkrav 12 hours ago [-]
Is there any scientific basis for some kind of shared collective thought I don’t know about? In other words, what’s the “hive mind” if not the collective result of individual minds?
2 hours ago [-]
AlecSchueler 11 hours ago [-]
Changes in behaviour in the individual level might result in an apparent cognitive decline for that individual, but could still benefit the hive as a whole.
folkrav 10 hours ago [-]
I was asking about the concept of “hive mind”. Is the concept accepted as a “thing”, has it ever been measured in any way, and if yes, what is it?
AlecSchueler 9 hours ago [-]
Yes, it's the idea that the colony exhibits behaviour with a level of intelligence impossible for any of the single bees. Things like choosing the location of the nest or managing the temperature of the nest, there's various decisions "made" by the colony as a kind of emergent property of the behaviour of the individual bees who themselves don't have the capacity to think at that level. The various aspects of colony behaviour have all been individually studied by quite a few people and groups, yes.
s1artibartfast 9 hours ago [-]
I think you are missing the point of the question, and it revolves around calling it a mind capable of decisions.
AlecSchueler 8 hours ago [-]
Am I? I just mentioned there's research that shows a colony of bees can make decisions that individual bees are incapable of. What am I misunderstanding?
kbelder 9 hours ago [-]
If human society changed so that average individual intelligence decreased, but the human race as a whole acted more intelligently, did human intelligence increase or decrease?
lupire 11 hours ago [-]
Why are they testing a whole brain instead of individual neurons? What is a brain if not the collective result of individual neurons?
folkrav 10 hours ago [-]
The comparison only works if the concept of a “hive mind” is as accepted and defined as the concept of a brain, which is quite literally what I was asking.
collingreen 8 hours ago [-]
"Hive mind" conjures ideas of an omnipresent, all-controlling intelligence to me like startrek's borg, but I think this is more about the idea of a "superorganism" [0] like some bees and most ants where the group exhibits traits and "behavior" and "decisions" as a whole, beyond the ability of any single, specialized individual. Less superintelligence and more emergent behavior and complexity.
Nitpick: the article mentions that the bees are tracked with QR Codes, but I find that hard to believe, given the space constraints. In one photo it looks like it is an ArUco marker.
diggan 15 hours ago [-]
2mm QR codes according to the article:
> The protocol used at Fukushima is automated. Each bee is equipped with a 2-mm-wide QR Code which is read by a camera, activating the opening of the maze.
But yeah, doesn't look like a QR code at all, are there possibly different variations of QR codes? Haven't heard about that myself.
blueflow 15 hours ago [-]
I can imagine the journalist referring to all Matrix Codes as "QR".
wanderingstan 13 hours ago [-]
This is it. All matrix codes are now commonly referred to as “QR Codes”. I’ve noticed this especially at airports where both passengers and gate agents refer to the “QR codes” on boarding passes. (Which are IIRC Aztec codes)
In China the normal word is 二维码 "two-dimensional code".
noduerme 9 hours ago [-]
is a barcode a one-dimensional code?
collingreen 8 hours ago [-]
Yes - even though it obviously has visual height the data only runs in one dimension. For the 2D codes like QR the data is in both directions, which is why orientation often comes up in their design.
We have something similar in Barcelona (maybe entire Spain? Apparently called NaviLens, colored squares rather than triangles) all around public transit points. They're used for blind people to navigate the public transit system :)
> As users sweep their environment with a smartphone, audio cues allow them to find and center the tag in the phone’s field of view. A shake of the wrist prompts the details contained within the tag to be read out (visually impaired people are often holding a guide dog or cane with their other hand). https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/06/06/135057/these-col...
alex_suzuki 12 hours ago [-]
Never saw one of those in the wild. But I have seen NaviLens codes (on cereal packaging), they use color as well:
https://www.navilens.com/en/
randall 11 hours ago [-]
they’re at every new york subway station. i don’t know why.
ChrisMarshallNY 11 hours ago [-]
Surprised that they are still there.
It’s an old Microsoft standard. I’m pretty sure that MS rolled it up, years ago, so they may not be valid, anymore.
Nitpick: QR code is widely used as a generic term for matrix barcodes.
15 hours ago [-]
Thorrez 15 hours ago [-]
>Although the results of the study have yet to be published, scientists are already reporting a decline in insect cognition in the contaminated area of Fukushima Prefecture.
blueflow 15 hours ago [-]
Troll-tier conclusion: Human presence improves cognition in insects
IAmBroom 14 hours ago [-]
Scientific research causes cancer in mice.
That's actually a fact; there are specific bloodlines prone to cancers.
gus_massa 13 hours ago [-]
I can see a direct relation in this test, but it may be my lack of imagination or knowdledge...
Anyway, animals in islands without predators lose escape hability, in particular the dodo.
GuB-42 5 hours ago [-]
The conclusion is (emphasis mine):
Although the results of the study have yet to be published, scientists are already reporting a decline in insect cognition in the contaminated area of Fukushima Prefecture. "We can see correlations," Armant says. "However, a causal link with radioactive contamination has not yet been established. But since the area is no longer inhabited, it is unlikely that the effect is due to factors such as pesticides."
So, when people leave the area, insect cognition decline, therefore human presence improves cognition in insects.
miohtama 15 hours ago [-]
Teenage Mutant Ninja Bees
13 hours ago [-]
blackoil 15 hours ago [-]
Have we tried increasing cognition by selective breeding. Get mice best at maze to breed 100 descendants and repeat it few times, with varying food supply and survival difficulties.
giraffe_lady 14 hours ago [-]
This gets you mice that are better at navigating mazes. The connection between that and general cognition or learning capacity is not as robust as you would hope. Just as likely they simply have better peripheral vision or something.
[0]: https://masseffect.fandom.com/wiki/Rachni
[1]: origins have to start somewhere
[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superorganism
> The protocol used at Fukushima is automated. Each bee is equipped with a 2-mm-wide QR Code which is read by a camera, activating the opening of the maze.
But yeah, doesn't look like a QR code at all, are there possibly different variations of QR codes? Haven't heard about that myself.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Capacity_Color_Barcode
Haven't seen one in ages.
> As users sweep their environment with a smartphone, audio cues allow them to find and center the tag in the phone’s field of view. A shake of the wrist prompts the details contained within the tag to be read out (visually impaired people are often holding a guide dog or cane with their other hand). https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/06/06/135057/these-col...
It’s an old Microsoft standard. I’m pretty sure that MS rolled it up, years ago, so they may not be valid, anymore.
https://theapiarist.org/barcoding-bees/
That's actually a fact; there are specific bloodlines prone to cancers.
Anyway, animals in islands without predators lose escape hability, in particular the dodo.
Although the results of the study have yet to be published, scientists are already reporting a decline in insect cognition in the contaminated area of Fukushima Prefecture. "We can see correlations," Armant says. "However, a causal link with radioactive contamination has not yet been established. But since the area is no longer inhabited, it is unlikely that the effect is due to factors such as pesticides."
So, when people leave the area, insect cognition decline, therefore human presence improves cognition in insects.
I'm not sure why but this sentence feels vaguely menacing.
"Fukushima was a massive disaster. It was also Arthur Buzzby's origin story."