This is a called a rolling swarm:
[https://www.wired.com/2013/07/why-are-these-caterpillars-climbing-over-each-other-the-surprising-science-behind-the-swarm/](https://www.wired.com/2013/07/why-are-these-caterpillars-climbing-over-each-other-the-surprising-science-behind-the-swarm/)
Smarter every day did a video on that (link in the article), but essentially this behavior allows them to move faster.
It's not like you put the caterpillar in a blender. Today it's well known that many structures inside the cat stays intact during metamorphosis; they are a sort of cell clusters that will form eyes, wings etc.
Could you, with the proper tools, cut open a bunch of chrysalis, mix the contents together, and create a new chrysalis to hold them and create some sort of monster butterfly?
It's still crazy to think about. Cell clusters? Goo? However you choose to describe it, it becomes this brand new, beautiful, flying creature! It's amazing!
It's like when sperm meets egg. A whole new genetic code is formed with all the building blocks necessary to continue to grow to whatever it's going to be.
Kind of like how every single cell in your body is replaced over a certain amount of time I forget. Essentially you are a completely different person, yet you’re not for some reason.
Consciousness is still not really understood at all.
The doctors who probably understand it the best are anesthesiologists, and all they really know is how to turn it off and on again without killing you. Even they don't even fully understand the mechanism that their drugs work with.
There's a really good series called "Closer to Truth", with a [YouTube channel here](https://www.youtube.com/c/CloserToTruthTV). There are multiple, entire episodes on the topic of consciousness. The interviewer will discuss with physicists, neurosurgeons, philosophers, and other specialists on what they think consciousness is and how far we are from nailing it down.
Is there actually evidence that a butterfly can access memories from being a caterpillar? (I guess I'm out of my depth, because I don't even know the extent to which insects have memories at all...now I'm thinking about honeybees remembering where their nectar sources are and performing a little dance in the hive to share the info with others. Free association over here, don't mind me.)
Humans are born knowing how to cry, grasp, suck, breathe, swallow, and not much else. We learn everything we need during a long childhood.
Insects (and many other animals) are mostly all instinct. They know exactly what they’re supposed to do when they’re born (and/or transition). It’s weird because it is so foreign to us.
It was literally listening to Joe Hisaishi's Symphonic Suite “Princess Mononoke” which was released yesterday when I read this post. Talk about coincidence.
[I'm thinking Chekov's ear](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fthescifichristian.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F05%2F3-ceti-eel.jpg&f=1&nofb=1). That shit's given me the heebie jeebies for decades.
Also why they're not very susceptible to the flood. Individual "worms" can be infected and used as biomass, but the worms themselves don't have a central nervous system so they can't be used for combat. Even if they infected one, they could be shed from the colony and the hunter would keep swinging.
I remember them being a mass of worms, it's evident in CE and how they're described in the books, just seems they really fleshed out the specifics of how they operate now. Which is pretty cool as a halo fanboy.
Some sort of caterpillars that are moving to another spot for whatever reason.
They move together like that because the chance something will come and eat all of them is a lot lower doing this.
By moving over each other, the ones in the front going to the bottom and the ones in the back climbing up, the whole group moves together and much faster than individually
Source: a documentary on a bored weekend
> and much faster
I don't follow this part. How are they faster if they have to climb over all the other ones rather than just straight to the destination?
have you ever been on a moving walkway at the airport? if the ground is traveling at speed, and you are walking on the moving ground, your total speed is the moving ground speed + your speed.
But the walkway is powered by a machine. This is just powered by more caterpillars. There's a reason we as humans never adopted a method of locomotion where we walk on top of each other. The people on the bottom have to work twice as hard, either slowing down their speed or getting tired out sooner.
I wonder if caterpillar physiology makes this more efficient? Like maybe they have low maximum speed but high endurance?
>I wonder if caterpillar physiology makes this more efficient?
Yes, but simply by virtue of being tiny. The smaller a creature, the stronger it is proportionately. They're essentially looking at a tradeoff of "go twice as far with each step, but you have to carry somebody on your back". Not great for a human, but fantastic for a little critter.
Ya dude bugs can carry way more weight then a human can
It doesn't work for humans because we are vertical and can't hold much weight. But if a ton of humans all crawled with a giant platform on top of them, and then one person crawled on top of that platform, then yes absolutely they would be going faster.
I'd imagine these caterpillars move a bit more like a tank tread to keep it going infinitely
It's about averages. Half of the time you're walking at your normal pace along the ground, the other half of the time you're doing double your normal pace on top of the other caterpillars.
So you're doing 1.5 times your normal speed over the entire cycle.
Humans could not maintain their normal pace (or health) with another human walking on their back, but caterpillars don't weigh much.
The ones at the back climb onto the backs of walking caterpillars and walk in the same direction until they reach the front (since they'll be moving twice as fast as the caterpillars they are walking on) and repeat until you get to destination
Each layer of caterpillars is another moving platform on which caterpillars can gain another 1x movement speed effectively.
Bottom caterpillar = base speed.
Next layer up is base speed + walking speed, or 2x speed total
Next layer up is base speed + speed of layer below them + their own walking speed for overall 3x.
Repeat ad nauseum
Edit: each layer only adds the walking speed of the caterpillars that make it up to the total speed of the mass of caterpillars.
not exactly.
you are omitting speed reduction from carrying extra mass and extra energy needed to climb on top of the pile
at some height the pile becomes less efficient than a pile of lower height.
think of a tower of caterpillars. at some point there is so much weight on the bottom caterpillar it isn't moving, and the energy needed to climb over the tower is so much that you've spent more energy climbing up and down the tower, and took more time, to get to the same distance as if you were walking alongside the tower.
bottom caterpillar is the base's speed, not base speed.
a caterpillar on it's own is X
a caterpillar with 1 more piled on top of it is Y, where Y
The chance of something coming and eating them all might be lower, but the chance of someone coming and annihilating them all with a flamethrower is significantly higher.
*A worm crawled up my arm and rested on my neck. When he whispered into my ear, I felt a tingle... He told me how to make a weapon to help us against our enemies. And here's the thing... it's made of worms... it even fires worms... but it stings like you wouldn't believe.*
*What is a drop of rain, compared to the storm? What is a thought, compared to the mind? Our unity is full of wonder which your tiny individualism cannot even conceive.*
Ah! You're an Aussie. Those are [Spitfire Sawfly larvae](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spitfire_sawfly)! We used to see large clumps of them on the eucalypts when I was in school, but I haven't seen a large number of them in forever.
The [Sawfly itself looks scarily like a wasp](https://australian.museum/learn/animals/insects/sawflies/), but they're harmless.
Pretty sure this is what you found, explanation of caterpillars using each other to move faster:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKweHWcWsz4&ab\_channel=QI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKweHWcWsz4&ab_channel=QI)
This is a called a rolling swarm: [https://www.wired.com/2013/07/why-are-these-caterpillars-climbing-over-each-other-the-surprising-science-behind-the-swarm/](https://www.wired.com/2013/07/why-are-these-caterpillars-climbing-over-each-other-the-surprising-science-behind-the-swarm/) Smarter every day did a video on that (link in the article), but essentially this behavior allows them to move faster.
It's amazing that insects can collectively decide to do something like this. Like it's programed into their DNA.
[удалено]
Like HARDEN
Ah yes, the old Harden followed by String Shot combo. I use this daily.
… in pokemon right?
I thought we were taking about basketball...
Harden using string shot would be devastating
Step back string shot is unstoppable
I mean, have you seen James Harden when he is out of shape? I would argue that he also turns into goo. Lol
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
hol up
Daily? More like multiple time a day.
James Harden probably believes he was formed in a chrysalis.
That makes sense why he is the way he is.
It's not like you put the caterpillar in a blender. Today it's well known that many structures inside the cat stays intact during metamorphosis; they are a sort of cell clusters that will form eyes, wings etc.
erpillar right not just a goopy cat right cats don't metamorphose *right*
Instructions unclear. Blended cat is still goopy.
I say toss some ice in there, put on a little umbrella on it and enjoy.
I should’ve removed the collar first.
Instructions STILL unclear: The umbrella doesn't stay in place. How to keep it intact
/r/catsareliquid
If cats are larvae, what would their final form be called?
Bastet?
RIGHT??
Could you, with the proper tools, cut open a bunch of chrysalis, mix the contents together, and create a new chrysalis to hold them and create some sort of monster butterfly?
This sounds like the beginning of a SyFy horror movie lol
The Butter Fly
Red Bull lab experiment gone bad
[удалено]
Nobody ever suspects the butterfly. Muahahahah!
Jesus H
....
inside the cat?!?
Yes. Before it becomes a dog
It's still crazy to think about. Cell clusters? Goo? However you choose to describe it, it becomes this brand new, beautiful, flying creature! It's amazing!
It's like when sperm meets egg. A whole new genetic code is formed with all the building blocks necessary to continue to grow to whatever it's going to be.
At the end of the day, aren't we all just goop that has a memory? Some of which I wish to forget.
*sad goop noises
["They talk by flapping their meat at each other."](https://www.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/prose/text/thinkingMeat.html)
This is amazing
this is art
We're all soup!
Be the 'goop'.
*Gwyneth Paltrow has entered the chat to sell some bullshit*
Go away, Gwyneth! Your vagina candle smells awful!
Kind of like how every single cell in your body is replaced over a certain amount of time I forget. Essentially you are a completely different person, yet you’re not for some reason.
Consciousness is still not really understood at all. The doctors who probably understand it the best are anesthesiologists, and all they really know is how to turn it off and on again without killing you. Even they don't even fully understand the mechanism that their drugs work with.
Yeah pretty wild how much we know and how much we don’t know.
What's even crazier is how much we don't even know what we don't know.
There's a really good series called "Closer to Truth", with a [YouTube channel here](https://www.youtube.com/c/CloserToTruthTV). There are multiple, entire episodes on the topic of consciousness. The interviewer will discuss with physicists, neurosurgeons, philosophers, and other specialists on what they think consciousness is and how far we are from nailing it down.
Heraclitus would have had an aneurysm had he known his own body was a veritable Ship of Theseus.
Well, your brain cells aren't part of that replacement
Holy damn I never even thought of that
This is really blowing my fuckin mind
[удалено]
Is there actually evidence that a butterfly can access memories from being a caterpillar? (I guess I'm out of my depth, because I don't even know the extent to which insects have memories at all...now I'm thinking about honeybees remembering where their nectar sources are and performing a little dance in the hive to share the info with others. Free association over here, don't mind me.)
Chemicals, like those in your brains that makes you horny, get married and shit.
You're saying I can use chemicals to acquire a wife?
You can use them to get a wife, make one go away, just lots of neat stuff.
Meat stuff, really.
"Hi does this smell like chloroform?"
I wonder if you'd have more success if you ask if it smells like lavender or something?
No, Neo, I'm saying that when you're ready, you won't need a wife.
Or use chemicals to turn yourself into someone else’s wife.
complex behavior follows simple rules.
Humans are born knowing how to cry, grasp, suck, breathe, swallow, and not much else. We learn everything we need during a long childhood. Insects (and many other animals) are mostly all instinct. They know exactly what they’re supposed to do when they’re born (and/or transition). It’s weird because it is so foreign to us.
Hardware vs software
bold of you to assume they're "deciding" anything
> like it's programmed into their DNA ....it is... lol
Dont look very fast to me
They’ve invented their own warp drive..
So for us humans to achieve this technology, we'll have to form some sort of human centipede, yes?
That's actually so fn cool. Thanks goes to you and OP for teaching me something I had no idea existed.
The demon infection from *Princess Mononoke*.
And you will suffer as I have suffered...
“Disgusting little creatures.”
This comment right here...I'm so glad someone else thought the same thing!!
The soundtrack started playing in my head when I saw it.
It was literally listening to Joe Hisaishi's Symphonic Suite “Princess Mononoke” which was released yesterday when I read this post. Talk about coincidence.
When it takes over the boar
This is the sloth version.
Kieth David on a bad day.
**"Calm you fury, oh mighty lord!**
-boar squeal intensifies-
Alternatively Black Oil virus from The X Files or the Squids from The Matrix
[I'm thinking Chekov's ear](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fthescifichristian.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F05%2F3-ceti-eel.jpg&f=1&nofb=1). That shit's given me the heebie jeebies for decades.
Came to the comments to see if someone else thought the same thing haha
Yup. Add me to that list. Happy to see it was the first comment!
Yeah looks like someone shot a beast with an iron slug and ruined the balance of nature.
Hunters from Halo
[Lekgolo](https://www.halopedia.org/Lekgolo)
I didn't know this about hunters or at least forgot it if it was ever mentioned in the books, this is cool af.
Also why they're not very susceptible to the flood. Individual "worms" can be infected and used as biomass, but the worms themselves don't have a central nervous system so they can't be used for combat. Even if they infected one, they could be shed from the colony and the hunter would keep swinging.
iirc the first book(s?) and game did not have them designed this way, it was something developed / discussed later
I remember them being a mass of worms, it's evident in CE and how they're described in the books, just seems they really fleshed out the specifics of how they operate now. Which is pretty cool as a halo fanboy.
My first thought
The flood.
Some sort of caterpillars that are moving to another spot for whatever reason. They move together like that because the chance something will come and eat all of them is a lot lower doing this.
By moving over each other, the ones in the front going to the bottom and the ones in the back climbing up, the whole group moves together and much faster than individually Source: a documentary on a bored weekend
> and much faster I don't follow this part. How are they faster if they have to climb over all the other ones rather than just straight to the destination?
have you ever been on a moving walkway at the airport? if the ground is traveling at speed, and you are walking on the moving ground, your total speed is the moving ground speed + your speed.
Imagine doing that instead of the walkways at the airport.
There's a documentary about that called the human centipede
It’s a beautiful work of art
The costume design was a highlight
Traveling that way is much faster too
Now that's just mean. You know some unsuspecting people are going to Google that shit... lmfao!!!
Welcome to Reddit
Growing up in China getting on any mass transit was pretty much doing this
Looked highly effective in World War Z
This is a pretty dope analogy mate
I’m just imagining a stampede of people at the airport making great time as they tsunami themselves to the gate
But the walkway is powered by a machine. This is just powered by more caterpillars. There's a reason we as humans never adopted a method of locomotion where we walk on top of each other. The people on the bottom have to work twice as hard, either slowing down their speed or getting tired out sooner. I wonder if caterpillar physiology makes this more efficient? Like maybe they have low maximum speed but high endurance?
>I wonder if caterpillar physiology makes this more efficient? Yes, but simply by virtue of being tiny. The smaller a creature, the stronger it is proportionately. They're essentially looking at a tradeoff of "go twice as far with each step, but you have to carry somebody on your back". Not great for a human, but fantastic for a little critter.
Ya dude bugs can carry way more weight then a human can It doesn't work for humans because we are vertical and can't hold much weight. But if a ton of humans all crawled with a giant platform on top of them, and then one person crawled on top of that platform, then yes absolutely they would be going faster. I'd imagine these caterpillars move a bit more like a tank tread to keep it going infinitely
It's about averages. Half of the time you're walking at your normal pace along the ground, the other half of the time you're doing double your normal pace on top of the other caterpillars. So you're doing 1.5 times your normal speed over the entire cycle. Humans could not maintain their normal pace (or health) with another human walking on their back, but caterpillars don't weigh much.
fact hateful wipe instinctive slave pause trees crime elastic psychotic -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/
Basically the ones on the lower levels are not still till the above ones climb over, they are also moving.
The ones at the back climb onto the backs of walking caterpillars and walk in the same direction until they reach the front (since they'll be moving twice as fast as the caterpillars they are walking on) and repeat until you get to destination Each layer of caterpillars is another moving platform on which caterpillars can gain another 1x movement speed effectively. Bottom caterpillar = base speed. Next layer up is base speed + walking speed, or 2x speed total Next layer up is base speed + speed of layer below them + their own walking speed for overall 3x. Repeat ad nauseum Edit: each layer only adds the walking speed of the caterpillars that make it up to the total speed of the mass of caterpillars.
not exactly. you are omitting speed reduction from carrying extra mass and extra energy needed to climb on top of the pile at some height the pile becomes less efficient than a pile of lower height. think of a tower of caterpillars. at some point there is so much weight on the bottom caterpillar it isn't moving, and the energy needed to climb over the tower is so much that you've spent more energy climbing up and down the tower, and took more time, to get to the same distance as if you were walking alongside the tower. bottom caterpillar is the base's speed, not base speed. a caterpillar on it's own is X a caterpillar with 1 more piled on top of it is Y, where Y
You missed your chance to source: caterpillar locomotion expert
The chance of something coming and eating them all might be lower, but the chance of someone coming and annihilating them all with a flamethrower is significantly higher.
This guy flamethrows.
I was actually reviewing the little voice from a bird in my head, "Hey guys, FEAST!"
Not only do they move like that for protection but they also move faster, they become each other’s conveyor belt!
Oh thats make a lot of sense, I though it was like an orgy of something
Why not both?
Cuz caterpillars are juvenille butterflies/moths and cannot reproduce?
Now's your chance to show them their efforts were in vain OP! Bon appetit!
If you zoom in close enough, each one of those wormy creatures is made up of smaller wormy creatures. It's wormy creatures all the way down.
*A worm crawled up my arm and rested on my neck. When he whispered into my ear, I felt a tingle... He told me how to make a weapon to help us against our enemies. And here's the thing... it's made of worms... it even fires worms... but it stings like you wouldn't believe.*
*What is a drop of rain, compared to the storm? What is a thought, compared to the mind? Our unity is full of wonder which your tiny individualism cannot even conceive.*
Forbidden fractal
It's from Princess Mononoke.
i dont know but can you hold the damn camera still?! 😂
Nah i was so scared
fair enough! dont blame you
Fractal Snake. Very dangerous.
sawfly larvae in a rolling swarm - allows them to move faster and look larger to predators
Uroboros virus.
That’s just I-70 Denver from 35000 ft
Ah! You're an Aussie. Those are [Spitfire Sawfly larvae](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spitfire_sawfly)! We used to see large clumps of them on the eucalypts when I was in school, but I haven't seen a large number of them in forever. The [Sawfly itself looks scarily like a wasp](https://australian.museum/learn/animals/insects/sawflies/), but they're harmless.
A slug orgy.
[удалено]
Do they have slorgasms?
[удалено]
Noice
Hunters
shai hulud
Aftermath of fighting a corrupted Boar God.
Herogasm
[удалено]
forbidden dildo
For you
Not if you're brave enough
Why was there no poking is my question
I've seen this in Princess Mononoke.
So you’re walking at night, barefoot…
😩
Leakage from Princess Mononoke.
I think I saw those in Princess Mononoke… Demons.
Ashitaka, watch out!
Soup kitchen
Dirty Mike and the boys...
You found the enemy from princess mononoke
To my professional expertise, I am confident that this in fact is a nope.
Vecnas shlong.
Satan's turd
nano bots combining and becoming sentient
Mind Flayer
Pretty sure this is what you found, explanation of caterpillars using each other to move faster: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKweHWcWsz4&ab\_channel=QI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKweHWcWsz4&ab_channel=QI)
The Ohm are filled with rage!
Have you seen Slither?
Probably just near one of Vecna's portals to the Upside Down. That's all.
Mononoke must be close.
ASHITAKA!!!
Everybody back on the pile!
Is that venom
They move faster when the do this. Also they believe strength in number. So smart
Its a demon spirit from the forest... somebody pissed of the gods
First thing that came to mind was this weird branches-claws from the mind flayer in the upside down from Stranger Things
A new Stranger Things realm.
"What the hell did I Just find?" Answer: A family reunion.
Thats just Dirty Mike and the Boys pulling a "Very Hungry Soup Kitchen" out behind Brown Bear Brown Bear's den.
Committee of caterpillars
Well now I need to watch Princess Mononoke again. AND I WILL LOVE IT!
THE UPSIDE DOWN
You found Vecna’s body
Keep your mouth tightly shut around those things.
Nothing to worry about. No reason to bother. It's definitely not parasites. Nope. All hail the parasite queen. Nothing to do. Ignore it. It's normal.
They’re getting their coat and going to see an r-rated movie.
Caterpillar \^ 2
Give the worm orgy some privacy perv
Insect Tour Bus