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Not IQ, FlyQ
Flies that think they can do calculus - a half bakery metaphor | |
Not IQ, FlyQ, is the name of a large
format
billboard that enables flies and other
insects to solve complex equations.
Here's how it works:
The board
looks
like a featureless, off-white surface,
coated
with
pin heads which are actually a matrix of
tiny nozzles, each of which is
controlled
by a miniature valve. All of the nozzles
are
connected to a supply of an insect
attracting type of clear sugary liquid.
Equations which are entered into the
matrix by keyboard, will be invisible until
the flies arrive to feed on the tiny beads
of
invisible nutrient and collonate the
surface
of the board, their dark forms creating
the
letters and symbols.
Nozzles revealing the solution are turned
on after a judicious period of time has
elapsed. Once a week the board is
washed
down to remove all traces of flies and
nutrients, and a new message is
displayed.
Promised follow up to...
Snail_20Koans
one year later. [xenzag, Oct 04 2007]
Monk-glued ants
Tibetan_20Ant_20Painting
shameless elf-promotion [RayfordSteele, Oct 04 2007]
[link]
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I envision Carol Vorderman standing in front of a board covered in flies sweeping her hands back and forth [+] |
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This is proabably the most jam and bee compatible idea I've discovered during my time here. Wonderful. [+] |
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Perfect for a spelling bee. [+] |
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And I thought that monks gluing different colored ants to the floor was avant-garde. |
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i want to see these monk-glued ants. |
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I was hoping this would find a way to actually allow the insects to solve the problem using their collective intellectual capabilities...sort of like distributed computing. |
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Is there a way to make a logic gate using flies, without harming them? |
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+
<that's all fly has to say> |
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//a supply of an insect attracting type of
clear sugary liquid// That would be
"insect-attracting". But nitpicking aside,
[+] |
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I meant to mention that it can also
display large images of spiders. |
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I aggre with [ed]. This is just a fancy lightbrite. Perhaps one may find a set of biochemical signals that would propogate patterns of fly behavior across the board. Picture cellular automata: depending on the previous configuration of surrounding squares (fly, no fly, signal type), the concerning square would release a new signal. Thus, the flies would potentially find ways to harness patterns in the signaling to communicate with humans: "all your plates of food are belong to us". For example. |
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With a signal that flies liked (i.e. poop), you control the squares which output the signal based on surrounding squares. So, then, a square will only let out poop if no flies are on it's surrounding squares. Watch how fast the flies turn into a checker board pattern to maximize poopage. The speed and efficiency of the flies finding these cues may reveal some details of behavioral intelligence amongst these wondrous, annoying creatures. |
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//But nitpicking aside//
No, I don't think nits would work because they don't fly. |
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[Xenzag] You seem to have made poignancy a hobby. |
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