Post AzpeoylwJ6AP7jCXNQ by martinrust@infosec.exchange
(DIR) More posts by martinrust@infosec.exchange
(DIR) Post #AzpCBfPVYw9N41AvVQ by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-11-02T05:07:42Z
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In a million years which is more likely to still be around?
(DIR) Post #AzpCgniiiUI3oV0WP2 by GGMcBG@mstdn.plus
2025-11-02T05:13:17Z
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@futurebird Porque no, primants? But, definitely ants. We still got nothin'.
(DIR) Post #AzpDKmzQqrdX8CtN7g by alex02@ieji.de
2025-11-02T05:20:33Z
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@futurebird have you seen ants go to war and do racism?
(DIR) Post #AzpDPsMiIEQXFdCue0 by Moss@beige.party
2025-11-02T05:21:27Z
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@futurebird Hybrid primants
(DIR) Post #AzpHeSmq4kcG54deb2 by alihan_banan@mastodon.world
2025-11-02T06:08:55Z
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@futurebird ants have been here long before mammals appeared, ants have been first to lean agriculture, ants have learnt the truth of happiness - purpose and their hivemind grana and ultimate purpose for all and there have never been any obstacle their little feet could not overcome.They are basically lovecraftian mini ancient gods
(DIR) Post #AzpIeaJGCnkNMoQQHg by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-11-02T06:20:08Z
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@ArchusByte Plastic ants?I am confident that if there is enough plastic to make it practical, ants will put the plastic to good use. Though, silk is a far superior material in many ways.
(DIR) Post #AzpJXF72iWetYJm1Fg by fediversegaming@techhub.social
2025-11-02T06:29:59Z
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@futurebird 254 ants voted (checks out!)10 people commented (so far)#joke
(DIR) Post #AzpKIBbpYoMCIUYhFY by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-11-02T06:38:29Z
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@Peace Do you think this was maybe a little mean? I do have a point here. I was listening to some SF guy going on about "intelligent life on earth" and talking about how if humans can't last for a long time it's kind of over for earth. But... there are ants. And the ants of the future? Come on. If we can imagine people of the future with space colonies and amazing technology why not the ants? They would do it in their own way of course. But they want to fill the stars just as badly.
(DIR) Post #AzpKmo6H14T0MXOoD2 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-11-02T06:43:57Z
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@u0421793 Birds are pretty robust. Pigeons have a pretty chaotic record. The dodo? Passenger pigeon? It's such a diverse clade of birds. Very adaptable.
(DIR) Post #AzpRvMpgStyE4xfVL6 by TeddyTheBest@framapiaf.org
2025-11-02T08:03:58Z
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@futurebird Primates just because « Planet of the Apes »
(DIR) Post #AzpWbl5769yTGTM2yG by NatureMC@mastodon.online
2025-11-02T08:56:27Z
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@futurebird This SF guy ... if he thinks that it's over for the planet if humankind would be extinct ... he's quite anthropocentric. @Peace
(DIR) Post #AzpWkceBpHEpiEzJMe by Black_Flag@beige.party
2025-11-02T08:58:04Z
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@futurebird @Peace Sounds like this guy was saying the earth needs us. And I just hope he realizes that's the dumbest idea imaginable sometime soon. We are the ones doing the damage. Nothing else is. And judging by how we used imagination I truly hope nothing else ever develops it. Because when you can imagine then you can really do mass harm.
(DIR) Post #AzpbkIbCrd9jIzG2LI by david_chisnall@infosec.exchange
2025-11-02T09:54:01Z
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@futurebird Whichever the cephalopods decide tastes better or make better pets.
(DIR) Post #AzpeoylwJ6AP7jCXNQ by martinrust@infosec.exchange
2025-11-02T10:28:32Z
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Can anyone imagine an event or a process that would wipe out all ants, but leave primates alive? @futurebird
(DIR) Post #Azpf18skXpczxCBcfo by albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz
2025-11-02T10:30:43Z
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@futurebird With insects having been around for 400 million years and primates for only 70, and humanoid ones for up to 7 if we stretch it a lot to include Ardipithecus. In other words insects have survived all major mass extinctions since. It's not even a contest. As long as Earth is habitable there will be insects, but the same isn't true for humans.The only advantage humans have is the possibility, quite remote at this point, of leaving planet Earth. But in doing so we'd take with us the ecosystem that supports us, and that incluedes insects as a key component.
(DIR) Post #Azpgxu4JMeWL3AB4eO by rozeboosje@masto.ai
2025-11-02T10:52:32Z
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@futurebird There are some 12,000 species of ants and they have a proven track record of surviving over 100 million years. As opposed to 300 primate species that have been evolving for about half that time, and apes half of that again. So yeah my money's on the ants.
(DIR) Post #AzpkAYuFek1H2lCSUy by gnoll110@ruby.social
2025-11-02T11:28:26Z
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@futurebird Ants and... [checks notes] primates less than 25kgs.
(DIR) Post #AzpmdmQcez3LHuOwFM by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-11-02T11:56:10Z
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@Peace If ants didn't already have agriculture (selective breeding of scale insects, mass production of fungi, shepherding) people would say "how could an ant ever develop agriculture? Crows have bigger brains and THEY don't have agriculture."If ants didn't build sewer systems, which some do, people would say the same thing. Or if they didn't practice medical amputation.Ants achieve these things without knowing what they are. In the ant way.It will be the same for space travel.
(DIR) Post #Azpmq4TpN0NqkVlG2C by kechpaja@social.kechpaja.com
2025-11-02T11:58:21Z
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@futurebird Honestly I'm surprised that you're willing to say "without knowing what they are". We know a lot about what ants do, but what do we actually know about what they _know_?
(DIR) Post #AzpmtzFikQUBh81vHc by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-11-02T11:59:06Z
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@Peace Ants have achieved the same major technological milestones that we celebrate in humans. They grapple with problems of managing major population centers and information that are similar to the problems humans face. And the solutions found by ants are much more robust than those found by humans. They have demonstrated they can stand the test of time and they show no signs of being "done" growing slowly more complex and more important in every ecosystem they enter.
(DIR) Post #AzpmwQRIdgTAalbnnM by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-11-02T11:59:33Z
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@kechpaja Without knowing what they are in any way that we can recognize.
(DIR) Post #AzpnElbYgXGFRq9Y8m by jmax@mastodon.social
2025-11-02T12:02:41Z
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@futurebird @Peace Sure, because ants are old. The species that were stupid enough to build AI data centers went extinct eons ago.
(DIR) Post #AzpnIhZBdoLQ58v6Js by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-11-02T12:03:26Z
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@jmax @Peace I think ants would feel a kind of kinship with the LLM method of solution seeking. They are big fans of brute force. They might even recognize an LLM as a kind of "bad colony" but I'm getting perilously close to talking about "The Book I Can't Talk About Until it is Done" so I'll stop there.
(DIR) Post #AzpnYfFa1KtxX1MQCm by fehlfarbe@dresden.network
2025-11-02T12:06:25Z
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@futurebirdSpace insects? 🤯 like in Starship Troopers? 😱@Peace
(DIR) Post #AzpnbkudQQELxf2PDM by Bumblefish@mastodon.scot
2025-11-02T12:06:57Z
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@futurebird @jmax @Peace Isn’t a lot of algorithm based on bee swarms and ant colonies anyway?
(DIR) Post #AzpnmloCQvuRvUHPVY by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-11-02T12:09:00Z
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@Bumblefish @jmax @Peace There are whole areas of research on such things but I don't think any of them have yielded the magic that they have promised in their more daring moments. But I think that says more about primate impatience than the potential.
(DIR) Post #AzpnvCk2BKKpm1Ly7s by Bumblefish@mastodon.scot
2025-11-02T12:10:31Z
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@futurebird @jmax @Peace I think someone found them useful for predicting tensile strength in architectural fabrics but I can’t say as I grasped the paper completely.
(DIR) Post #Azpnwh58rVssA7w7nc by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-11-02T12:10:47Z
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@fehlfarbe @Peace I mean... kind of. But there were some things about the way that the "hive mind" was portrayed in those books that annoyed me. The mind of the superorganism is emergent from individual minds. It's not some central clearing house controlled by the queen or the "big brain bug"
(DIR) Post #AzpoNKE5wl2b5zp5TE by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-11-02T12:15:36Z
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@fehlfarbe @Peace As creatures that need to cooperate and coordinate our actions over millions of willful individuals we could learn a lot from ants. They are anarchists, you quickly discover. Anarchists with excellent communications and foundational shared values that make the fact that two ants may each decide to solve a problem in a different, or even in a conflicting way irrelevant. In fact, the constant push and pull between individuals is essential to "ant genius"
(DIR) Post #AzpoVn9eHAQj8EmRvc by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-11-02T12:17:07Z
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@vivtek @Peace They are too busy spreading gossip about each other to bother.
(DIR) Post #AzpoflZuzWeF8fp9fs by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-11-02T12:18:55Z
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@vivtek @Peace It would be so silly to plant your own garden when you can just visit the kinds of gardens that people make.
(DIR) Post #AzpplpQFiCMmkjl1UW by capnthommo@c.im
2025-11-02T12:31:13Z
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@futurebird @Peace yes. That's quite a common failing among us humans isn't it - this eagerness to equate the end of humanity with the end of the world.
(DIR) Post #AzpqoBVWffNBmWuZf6 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-11-02T12:42:46Z
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@8petros Some of the best portrayals of eusocial insects in all of SF.
(DIR) Post #AzprmzmurHLr6C2hAu by ghosttie@mastodon.gamedev.place
2025-11-02T12:53:49Z
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@futurebird how about 100 years
(DIR) Post #AzpsRCXAt73aDIqpFo by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-11-02T13:01:08Z
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@Peace I want to say a bit more about how ants participate in selective breeding. Most people are aware of the symbiotic relationship between ants and aphids. The ants protect the aphids from predators, the aphids process plant sugars for the ants. Over millions of years many species of ants and aphids have come to depend on each other in this way. But is that *really* "selective breeding" I think most people would say it isn't. 1/
(DIR) Post #AzpsTYalqcgTCjel84 by slotos@toot.community
2025-11-02T13:01:29Z
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@futurebird @Peace This reminds me of Peter Watts’ “Firefall” in that “consciousness is not necessary for intelligence”.There’s a nitpick in this comparison that I feel compelled to point out though.Ants’ solutions are not more robust in general. They are more robust _for ants_. Both the problems and the solution emerge from a different (intermediate) substrate. Although in this specific thread, that’s kinda the point.
(DIR) Post #AzpscsjGLeukGS4hc0 by fehlfarbe@dresden.network
2025-11-02T13:03:12Z
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@futurebird @Peace Yes, most people believe that the queen in an ant colony (or other eusocial insects) somehow controls the workers. A good counterexample is the observation of ants moving to another nest. The workers prepare everything, transport the brood and, in the end, even the queen, against her will. Funny to see how they try to push and pull the queen to their new nest 😆 Once, a Lasius niger colony had not made the entrance to the nest large enough, so the queen could not fit through the hole. In the end, they cut the queen into smaller pieces and carried these pieces to their new nest 🙈 🙈 🙈
(DIR) Post #AzpsjH3UogOZRsaS80 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-11-02T13:04:23Z
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@Peace It's not like the ants are deciding which aphids will make the best cattle then selecting those for the next generation.But this more typical and casual form of symbiosis finds a kind of refinement in the ant genus Acropyga.These hypogaeic ants almost never leave their underground nests due to their ancient and highly refined relationship with several species of mealybugs. 2/
(DIR) Post #Azpt0sZSaVDUiwvsv2 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-11-02T13:07:34Z
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@Peace When a young ant queen is ready to leave her colony to try to found a new nest she selects a mealybug from the many her sisters are tending in their underground gallerias. The mealybugs live on the roots of trees and the ants dig out spaces so they can feed and reproduce. They thrive on the sugars from the mealybugs and cull their herds for protein.A young queen ant *chooses* which mealybug to take on her flight. They like larger females, ideally pregnant. 3/
(DIR) Post #AzptGwclHlfBvc8aLQ by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-11-02T13:10:29Z
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@Peace The evolution of the mealybugs has been shaped by the choices of ants in the same way that goat, sheep and cows have been shaped by the choices of humans. This isn't just symbiosis. It's animal husbandry. And it's absurdly effective too! These ants never need to leave their nests to forage. This is what I mean about ants having achieved the same kind of complex solutions we celebrate in human history...just in their own way. 4/4
(DIR) Post #AzptRMVftjpv6hn2zA by Nigel_Lake@mastodon.world
2025-11-02T13:12:19Z
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@futurebird @Peace Wow. Extraordinary!
(DIR) Post #AzptlxKqgwwp6vXvu4 by Zergling_man@sacred.harpy.faith
2025-11-02T13:15:47.468643Z
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@futurebird @Peace I will personally genocide ants, fuck those gross bitches.>4/4Talking about technological advancements kekw
(DIR) Post #Azptq53fv5JyDnTpg0 by djsumdog@djsumdog.com
2025-11-02T13:16:50.423925Z
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I guess the better question is ants vs bees? Bees can fly, and clean their hives (removing waste and dead) and have weird and complex movement/danced based communication techniques for migrating a hive. I'm not sure if they have the amputation or other things .. plus they're still basically hunter/gathers .. they don't really farm, just pick up what's present.But the trouble with both of these analogies is that each ant colony or bee hive is sorta a single entitle. A worker bee lives 2~4 weeks while the queen lives 2~4 years (like brain cells vs blood cells). So if such insects continued to evolve, they'd fight other groups as unified groups; a very interesting individual nation-state because they cannot exist independently.
(DIR) Post #AzptxYptba02bQbNcO by djsumdog@djsumdog.com
2025-11-02T13:18:11.349175Z
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Only fire ants and wasps .. and hornets. Regular ants don't bother me, so long as they're outside the house. Fuck fire ants though man. Those bastards have gotten me one to many times while lawn mowing.
(DIR) Post #AzpuBu6dJwcGcmGndA by swachter@toot.boston
2025-11-02T13:20:43Z
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@futurebird Have you read the Children of Time series by Adrian Tchaikovsky? It’s spiders, not ants, but I feel like you would enjoy the hell out of it. (Ants are involved tho.)
(DIR) Post #AzpuFEAfAyF1ivjvVo by Zergling_man@sacred.harpy.faith
2025-11-02T13:20:16.883051Z
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@djsumdog @futurebird Have you ever lived in a suburb that is actually just one fucking massive ant nest
(DIR) Post #Azpv2qj4cNTJUPUqCe by jgamble@fosstodon.org
2025-11-02T13:30:19Z
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@futurebird I voted ants just because there's more of them. But honestly, I expect both groups of life forms to be around.Heck, humans might still be part of the primate group.
(DIR) Post #AzpvwVlBkugggK1l7Q by djsumdog@djsumdog.com
2025-11-02T13:40:24.639538Z
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Wait .. are we talking about actual ants or ... "humans"
(DIR) Post #AzpwLDUqnPuFHIALLc by Zergling_man@sacred.harpy.faith
2025-11-02T13:44:44.158470Z
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@djsumdog @futurebird I am talking about actual ants. There is a place not far from me where, no matter what you do, you will spend half of each year getting raided by ants.
(DIR) Post #Azpx8jmNYg4FafygtM by djsumdog@djsumdog.com
2025-11-02T13:53:49.469097Z
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Woah .. nah never seen that. That sounds terrible. I know for termites you dig up a trench around your house and pour buckets of that diluted pesticide, and then spray the dirt too before you fill it in .. wonder if that would also keep the ants out.I lived in a basement apartment in Chicago that had constant ant problems, but I just used the little traps and cleaned a lot.
(DIR) Post #Azq0shWMaQmzln5yeO by Zergling_man@sacred.harpy.faith
2025-11-02T14:35:01.569149Z
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@djsumdog @futurebird I don't think that would work there because they're already coming up under every house.>I just used the little traps and cleaned a lot.I used hovex and cleaned a lot, but neither would actually keep them out.
(DIR) Post #Azq1tIhYRylP2NBDPc by 3hu@cawfee.club
2025-11-02T14:47:05.695451Z
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@djsumdog @futurebird Ants could conceivably evolve industry over hundreds of millions of years, but going to space is such of a leap that it would require intelligence and creativity, which insects would have a hard time getting. I doubt using the colony would help much either, communication bandwidth is too low.
(DIR) Post #Azq4ps2rOwMFMFCYam by raganwald@social.bau-ha.us
2025-11-02T15:19:59Z
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@futurebird Always bet on Hymenoptera.
(DIR) Post #Azq9dUaXHr9Ou4rzrU by iwein@mas.to
2025-11-02T16:13:50Z
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@futurebird I'd like very much to read a science fiction story where ants figure out how to produce graphene or some other very strong material and build crazy high structures with it. @ArchusByte
(DIR) Post #AzqA5kSzqS7yG2oiLg by msjen@toot.cafe
2025-11-02T16:18:54Z
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@futurebird Both, as there is more than one species of both primares and ants, thus room to evolve through various challenges of the next million years.
(DIR) Post #AzqAJiSa6QME5XHbvs by Longspeak@chirp.enworld.org
2025-11-02T16:21:25Z
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@futurebird Ants, and the species that evolves from ant and rules the planet.
(DIR) Post #AzqH4MJ8shPMigUZoe by gwcoffey@mastodon.social
2025-11-02T17:37:02Z
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@futurebird A total aside but my aunt is a primate.
(DIR) Post #AzqMVXMqMwkobu0DQW by ChuckMcManis@chaos.social
2025-11-02T18:38:02Z
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@futurebird @Peace Pretty amazing and not exactly with "big brains" as they say 😉 At some point I believe we'll figure out what makes something a someone and we're going to have to come to grips with a lot of our choices over the millennia.
(DIR) Post #AzqMWIjUGZnFVjxSkK by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-11-02T18:38:05Z
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@gwcoffey The queen of my carpenter colony had a prime mate who was an ant.
(DIR) Post #AzqMxdCoFxnGpEhndY by gwcoffey@mastodon.social
2025-11-02T18:43:07Z
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@futurebird I feel so see right now.
(DIR) Post #AzqRdLjU0idSc48WJc by ad_infinitum@mastodon.social
2025-11-02T19:35:28Z
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@futurebird primates are the 4th most successful order of mammals with 376–524 extant species. They have been around for about 70 million years. Their body plan is highly generalized which makes them great at adapting to a variety of environments.so in conclusion, ants.
(DIR) Post #AzrtHdy6WNwIfrNDWK by simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2025-11-03T12:20:00Z
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@futurebird I think you could say 'in one hundred years', and the results would be much the same.
(DIR) Post #AzvSMDjHaJ7sc4EqLA by corq@infosec.exchange
2025-11-05T05:37:07Z
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@futurebird #Ants are SO better organized
(DIR) Post #AzvXaDqGSieIms048W by hanktank61@NerdJoy.social
2025-11-05T06:35:40Z
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@futurebird @kechpaja The "Flash" of "being there", in any environment as a living creature, is not less in an ant than in a human I think.
(DIR) Post #AzwOECCdAgsMu2qNRQ by antdude@mastodon.social
2025-11-05T16:25:34Z
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@futurebird @8petros it needs a movie
(DIR) Post #AzwPXlRiSgivfFnKXg by antdude@mastodon.social
2025-11-05T16:40:09Z
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@futurebird r u an ant like me? ;)
(DIR) Post #B05SN2Jhnmtcq1qAvQ by martinrust@infosec.exchange
2025-11-09T04:50:15Z
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@futurebird Did an #ArthurCClarke novel inspire you to do this poll? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Next_Tenants
(DIR) Post #B05nOj86Czn0wl3jDE by stragu@mastodon.indie.host
2025-11-10T05:19:58Z
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@futurebird @Peace I want an animated movie / show of an ant queen and her quirky mealybug sidekick
(DIR) Post #B0CFKKrGTFieB0dfay by jollyorc@social.5f9.de
2025-11-13T08:01:10Z
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@futurebird @Peace