Firework in the Deep Sea

Dear James,

Usually you bring discussions about AI and AGI to me – and I think you know all my thoughts about it – but this time, I will bring one of my animal riddles to you that in a way is also about “sentient beings”.

For the reader, who did not follow my “fun” rants about egomaniacal computer scientists, here is a little paragraph about my opinions on typical AGI discussions:

I don’t think that any machine is even close to developing into a living being. Actually, I think it is absurd to discuss this so much and I think it is a distraction from real and practical goals that probably can be reached with AI technology in the not so far distance.

The idea of living machines is coming more from the direction of sci-fi writers than from scientists, who observed something curious and then found in conclusion that this might be possible. It is more like people getting fascinated by those stories and therefore come into science.

I feel like some of those stories are more about slavery than the idea of living robots.

If machines would one day somehow start to develop a conscious mind it wouldn’t be computer scientists, who should discuss the ethical rules of handling them.

I deeply despise men, who discuss the idea of sexy robots being their sex slaves with a creepy smile and don’t think they need a camera to be pointed at them, while they talk about their wet dream.

I can not stand scientists, who use their profession to get the stage to unnecessarily scare people with AGI fantasy, just because they love to hear themselves talk and got caught by the ego-trap years ago, because they lack humbleness and overestimate their own capabilities.

I think that what is called AI now is very practical and cool and I would prefer it, if it would get its place without being overshadowed by stupid pseudo-discussions fed by god-complex driven idiots.

AI is cool. I like clever machines and respect people, who come up with them and train them.

I would like to be in a position, where I could play with them.

But now it is time to dive into the deep sea. There are creature living in the ocean, that are a fascinating riddle to me. It is hard to get information about them and this is the reason, I struggle. I am sure, there are people out there, who know the answer I am looking for, but I haven’t found it yet. Let me try to put my question into a clickbait sentence:

Why is no one talking about the creature that is longer than the blue whale? The answer will shock your brain out of your mind!

Or maybe: You think the blue whale is the longest animal in the sea? You are wrong! You have been lied to your whole life long!

Or: The blue whale conspiracy – why they don’t want you to know about siphonophores

Stupidity aside, I want to tell you about Siphonophores, because they are amazing and mesmerizing, dangerous and beautiful and yes, they can grow up to 46 meters – longer than a blue whale. In my native German, they are called Staatsquallen. In this word hides he first hint to the riddle. They are not Quallen (Jelly fish) but related to them. Their beautiful translucent body, often capable of breathtakingly awesome bio-luminescence reminds of their cousins. Also, they have dangerous toxic tentacles, with which they trap and kill their prey. But the other half of the word is the real intriguing part: “Staats-“. It doesn’t mean that they belong to the government, it means that they are actually hives. Yes, you read that right – they don’t live in hives, they are hives. They are comprised of little animals called zooids. They all hang together and can build really large colonies that can grow – as mentioned – longer than a blue whale. Of course they are not nearly as massive, but still, they are the biggest thing you can encounter in the ocean (and you should swim away from it, because their toxins are potent). The reason that they are not talked about all the time is that they do not count as one animal. And here comes my question: How did the scientists decide that they are a hive rather than one creature?

I don’t doubt, that there are good reasons, but I don’t know them. I put some research into it, but didn’t find a satisfying answer yet. Because things are complicated with that creatures. First there is a fertilized egg. Like cnidarians (the group of jelly fish, corals and siphonophores belong to) like to do it, they reproduce asexually via a budding-process. But in this case it is not really a reproduction in my eyes. The pro-bud builds clones around it that are stuck together. The clones can differ in form, because they have different functions. Gastrozooids for example are the only zooids that can intake food. The energy they get from eating gets distributed to the whole structure. Nectophores are there for moving the siphonophore and there are other types as well. The most famous siphonophore is the Portuguese man o’ war, it’s famous “sail” is a zooid called pneumatophore.

So the pro-bud builds up clones that together build a body with different varieties of cloned buds that function as organs. Can you already see my struggle? Honey bees build a hive. They all descend from the same queen, everyone has a build-in function, but still they are not attached to each other and also not to the hive structure. Every bee has its own organs and although it can not survive for long without its hive, it is easy to see one bee as one creature. The zooids of siphonophores on the other hand do not have own organs to survive. They are all stuck together and immensely depended on the others. I don’t know, what happens when one zooid would get detached. Maybe some marine biologists know, but they are a bit rare in Vienna nowadays, I feel. Also, there are extra zooids for sexual reproduction that let their products out in the water in the hope, some egg might find a partner. Siphonophores of the same species all follow the same zooid-pattern, you know like our legs mostly come out in pairs at the butt side and not in a trio out of the belly. So, you see, I struggle with the beginning. How did the scientist, that discovered and described them, came to the hive conclusion. There must be a good reason for it. Without knowing that reason, I am a bit stuck. It so much looks like one creature for me, I want to know that secret reason. So while the AGI question circles around the question “is it conscious or a machine?”, my riddle revolves around “is it one creature or hundreds of them?”. And of course the follow up question: when they are really colonies, how do they communicate? Is there a leadership? Do the nectophores sometime fight over where to go? How can this colony function as one?

I think, it would be unfair not to mention, that it was neither the colony life-style nor the huge size that amazed me, when I first saw a picture of a “Feuerwerks-Staatsqualle”. It was it’s mesmerizing fiery beauty that caught my attention. And actually its “firework” made up of bioluminescence to look like a food festival for their prey, is really made to make you look. And boy that works well! Stunning creatures that put on stunning shows, designed to make you come closer, capable of killing a human. who can’t get enough of the sight. Just one of the amazing wonders that can be found in the deep of the ocean.