So everyone knows that the whole “winged human” depiction of angels is more of a renaissance art thing, and angels are actually supposed to look like weird otherworldly monsters with many eyes and six wings and things like that.
Except that doesn’t sound otherworldly at all. That sounds like the most common group of animals in the world.
Many eyes? Insects can have thousands.
Six wings? While most winged insects have only 2-4, there’s a few species that can have 6.
Conclusion: angels are talking bugs. Thanks for coming to my ted talk
GIANT talking bugs. That explains the whole “be not afraid” thing…
So everyone knows that the whole “winged human” depiction of angels is more of a renaissance art thing, and angels are actually supposed to look like weird otherworldly monsters with many eyes and six wings and things like that.
Except that doesn’t sound otherworldly at all. That sounds like the most common group of animals in the world.
Many eyes? Insects can have thousands.
Six wings? While most winged insects have only 2-4, there’s a few species that can have 6.
Conclusion: angels are talking bugs. Thanks for coming to my ted talk
GIANT talking bugs. That explains the whole “be not afraid” thing…
oh, yeah, it’s artificial neural networks that do that, they’re the ones who call lots of things “dogs” that clearly aren’t dogs. no other sorts of minds would ever do that constantly
(hat-tip to @slatestarscratchpad‘s link post, though I’d been hearing off-hand mentions of this for a while and had been meaning to look into it)
“The pathogen stress theory is also hard to swallow in a way that evolutionary psychology arguments often are—especially for those who fancy the idea that we are in control of our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.”
I don’t know, I don’t really feel upset by “the reason you don’t grok liberal mindsets is because you’re a germophobe”. It sounds a little weird, sure, but not upsetting. I think I just file it under “interesting if true”.
(It’s not like it’s going to cause germophobia to become low-status: it’s already low-status, as I am reminded every time sick people act like [me wanting to arrange things so we don’t touch the same objects] is an unreasonable burden on them.)
Mind you, I mostly don’t feel subjectively in control of my political beliefs, so perhaps that makes it easier to swallow.
Tags:
#my brother and father had a cold recently so the unreasonable-burden thing is fresh in my mind #why no I do *not* want to play Go Fish with you #especially not during a dinner to be eaten with one’s hands #this post technically qualifies as #oh look an original post #but is closer to the spirit of #reply via reblog #illness tw #(and for link picture) #needle tw #bugs #oh and one more category tag seems relevant #our roads may be golden or broken or lost
What, not enough Wing Bling our Carpenter Bee friends? Well check this out, Pilgrim, …. from Thailand. Another Xylocopa specimen found lounging around the Packer Lab.
So…did you know that Xylocopa lay the worlds largest insect egg?
I picked up a worm, and it wrote something in my hand with a tiny pencil. Unfortunately it was too small to read. An autograph? A spell? An angry note?
Ooh! Thank you for this valuable contribution to the field of worm linguistics and/or art. It is still unclear to me if it’s meant as a rude message to me, if it’s just putting its tag there, or something else. Further research is needed!
I think the idea of it being a penis is anthropomorphism. I mean, the worm doesn’t have a penis itself, nor proper eyes with which to see one. No, I’m afraid this is something far more interesting: a self-portrait. You have been touched by an aesthetic annelid, and now your life will never be the same.
#bees #bugs #adorable #art #awww #(…does that bee have eight legs?) #(maybe it’s just a side effect of the mad science) #((oh wait I think the top leg is coming from the right side)) #((so there are only three pairs)) #((okay then))
Brinens and Things 