⿻ patcon (is in Toronto)

@patcon.bsky.social

615 Followers 1010 Following

& this is the wonder that keeps the stars apart. #complexity #plurality #democracy #civictech @CivicTechTO cfndr. @g0vtw fan. early pol.is cntrbtr. ex: biochemst @enviroDGI @HyphaCoop @nwspk @gc_talent 🏡 SF/Tkaronto/NOLA/London 🔗 nodescription.net/notes

A bee taking flight from a flower.
> with ^^ant colonies^^, we were studying: how do these systems ^^search^^. there's no central controller, the queen isn't directing. there are thousands of ^^agents spreading out over space looking for something^^. This could be food. There are some lessons in how we might build more decentralized systems. ^^Ants lay pheromone trails.^^ so when on individual is successful it might lay a chemical trail from a location of food back to the nest, and that trail can be reinforced, ^^making other ants follow it to this location^^. and they leverage the ^^natural evaporation^^ of chemicals on the landscape. so that if the food disappears, the ^^reinforcement stops and the trail disappear^^. this is an ^^amazing way to make a map of the landscape and where food has been found, and direct other ants. no centralized control needed.^^ just decentralized system, and a bit of a centralized location where any ant coming out of the nest will see the signals going in different directions and be able to make a choice. so there is some interplay of centralization and decentralization.
Clusters based on projections of data using LocalMAP dimensional reduction algo.
Original Polis PCA projections, but colored with clusters found in LocalMAP projections.
Image of big blog from PCA algorithm.
Quote in post
A photo of a custom tshirt creation wizard, showcasing a stock-photo man, leaning against a wooden stool, wearing a gray shirt saying "my girlfriend doesn't poop."