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I posted this piece a few years in the past, however it’s timeless. I used to be reminded of this weblog submit when my WordPress splash alarm went off – somebody was linking to this web page on their very own weblog. That’s OK, in fact. The concept right here is to throw concepts out into the ether and see who could make use of them. Since my story describes a dystopian apiary, it feels acceptable to have it included in this piece on Synthetic Intelligence at a Vancouver artwork gallery. Take pleasure in my piece, under, then hop on over to Mad, unhealthy, and harmful to know. for a cool have a look at fashionable artwork.
Right here’s my Artificial Apiary story. The video at the tip of this hyperlink is nice, however the entire idea is bizarre. It’s a synthetic, artificial apiary. I’ll rank it with the Circulation(TM)Hive for a purpose that may develop into obvious in a second. However the bizarre idea we’re is a synthetic indoor residing area for frolicking honey bees.
Most beekeepers just like the pure contact of wooden, the style of honey, the buzzing within the ears, and the sticky wax on the fingers. I assume that’s one of many many causes that I’m in opposition to the dreadful honey-on-tap hive. The Circulation(TM)Hive is ideal for a synthetic plastic world – a turn-the-tap and right here’s-your-honey mentality. Nicely, the artificial apiary I’m about to evaluation needs to be stuffed with stream hives. After which forgotten.
In ArchitectureDaily’s piece, referred to as “Neri Oxman + Mediated Matter Create Artificial Apiary to Fight Honeybee Colony Loss”, we find out about a synthetic apiary that appears like a Star Trek holodeck.
“Pc,” calls for Captain Picard, “make me an apiary.” And that is what he will get: a bizarre white world of perpetual spring the place bees have an endless provide of sugar water and faux pollen. You see, Jean Luc Picard forgot to order bushes and grass and flowers and stuff.
Common readers of this weblog know that I rant in opposition to silliness at any time when I discover it, but I’ve obtained a mushy spot for know-how and design. As Neri Oxman says, the artificial apiary is only a ‘proof of idea’ – investigating whether or not bees might be saved alive in a synthetic atmosphere. I perceive the design experiment. It’s fascinating and laudable. However bizarre, from a beekeeper’s perspective.
Proof of idea was established way back when business beekeepers (together with a few of my buddies) started parking tens of 1000’s of colonies in big wintering warehouses the place temperature, gentle and humidity are managed. Bees can survive in a synthetic area, we already know that. To me, the artificial apiary appears to be like an excessive amount of like a dystopian future – some warlord has captured two hives and two beekeepers and has put them in his man cave whereas simply exterior his partitions, Paris has been incinerated in a nuclear warfare. Or one thing.
The article concerning the Artificial Apiary (“to fight honeybee colony loss”) duly notes that seven (of the world’s 22,000) bee species have been positioned on the endangered species checklist and this experiment factors the way in which to fight honey bee colony loss. Thankfully, honey bees are literally rising in quantity, although another species are, in truth, threatened. Had the designers carried out their homework, they might have chosen one of many threatened bee species, a pleasant bumblebee, for instance, however that’s one other problem.
In a sensible sense, the artificial apiary fails on many fronts: Bees will survive just a few months on concoctions of sugar syrup and substitute pollen, however they want a pure number of amino acids and minerals to truly thrive. They want propolis and floral pollen. They want a ceiling 100 metres excessive and a 2-kilometre hallway if drone and queen will mate, or they’ll die after the previous queen dies. They want a synthetic solar that travels throughout the sky, in any other case, the bees will probably be drawn to synthetic lights and gained’t return to their hive. They want flowery meadows, recent water, open skies. They want a greater holodeck.
Anyway, I hope that you’ll try the video and the story. I truthfully appreciated the movie. The images is sensible – even when the whole idea is, nicely, a bit bizarre. And realizing that the bees gained’t survive like this, all of it turns into macabre.
h/t Robert
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