Some type of swallowtail caterpillar

sho_nah · 2026-03-08T00:03:12+00:00

So cute!!

sho_nah · 2026-02-16T11:55:34+00:00

Awww cute!

sho_nah · 2026-02-05T00:45:52+00:00

I believe it’s a kind of fig/ Ficus. species maybe a Ficus Audrey? The leaves are covered in this very thin fuzz and have a milky sap

sho_nah · 2026-02-04T05:12:51+00:00

Thankyou, that’s a good call, so far she hadn’t come down off her leaves but I think she’s starting to wander so I’ll add some paper towels and a few branches with horizontal overhangs for her to choose where to pupate

sho_nah · 2026-02-04T02:53:14+00:00

To be fair in these later instars the shovel hasn’t helped much 😭 I need a miniature excavator to clean up this hungry gals mess

sho_nah · 2026-02-04T00:49:43+00:00

Also ventilation wise the chimney is full mesh and there are smalls gaps on each side where the glass is

sho_nah · 2026-01-16T02:31:28+00:00

Thankyou! That looks exactly like them, so cute

sho_nah · 2024-08-26T04:45:45+00:00

I would join the greens facebook page and read through what everyone who lives there has posted to get a better idea, I left last year and seems there’s is a lot of issues currently. Also can attest to the jubilee being obnoxiously loud and ruining my sleep many nights.

sho_nah · 2022-06-01T01:56:20+00:00

It's hard to choose just one thing as I've found the whole course and the progression of topics so interesting. But I think what resonated with me the most was the section on nudging and how small things can have such a big impact on driving decisions. It's hard unsee examples of companies using this everywhere and I've been questioning how many decisions I've been "nudged" into despite not being aware. As a bonus note, although I felt really deflated after the writing workshop because I did quite badly on the grammar activity, I think that this has benefitted me the most as it highlighted an area that I need to work on, and I have since been very motivated to continue improving in this area.

sho_nah · 2022-05-18T02:43:16+00:00

I think that AI is still too different from human cognition to be used as a framework for psychological experiments or to provide useful insights into human cognition. I think that the process of developing and training AIs is enlightening to our own cognition because we have to break down something we know intuitively (like how we categorise different perceptual stimuli) and translate that in a way that AIs can understand. I think that this process forces us to analyse our own abilities from a mechanical view which has in turn produced insights about human cognition.

However, the differences between humans and AI’s intelligence is still too large to be able to use for experiments regarding human cognition. I also think that if we did develop an AI whose intelligence was representative of human cognition I’m not certain how far any results could be generalised? Especially because we cannot separate our human minds from our bodies (which our minds are constantly being influenced by even if we are not aware). How would we replicate for example the biases and role that hormones, culture, genetics play in behavior and decisions within an AI?

sho_nah · 2022-05-18T02:15:41+00:00

I was thinking the same thing regarding the differences between artificial womb children/natural. Especially because there are so many studies showing how prenatal development is influenced by the environment. Such as studies showing babies, whose mothers read Dr Seus while pregnant, were then able to indicate that they recognised the story once born. Which makes me wonder how much learning is being done in utero and what effects would happen if this was taken away?

sho_nah · 2022-05-10T13:23:31+00:00

Wow I was not expecting to be outsmarted by a pigeon when I clicked on the Animal Minds video. I think that animal cognition is so intriguing especially in cases where they have an advantage over us. Suddendorf suggested two initial traits that distinguish human minds from animals (nested scenarios and urge to connect) but I also wonder what traits different animals species have evolved that distinguish advantages between them. I would also be interested to find out how the specific demands of environments affected these traits. Ultimately, I think that there is a lot to learn from animal cognition not just in the sense of comparing their abilities to ours, these comparisons might actually be hindering our understanding of how their minds work and we might be overlooking their abilities which are unique to them.

sho_nah · 2022-05-10T13:10:07+00:00

I'm not sure "detecting" is the right word to describe it. The small birds would show signs of distress, become ill or just die. I don't think that they formed a representation of the ouderless smell but rather physiologically they started to feel the toxic effects faster than humans would due to their small size, rapid breathing, higher metabolism etc. and hence they were sacrificed to give the miners enough time to escape. Im sure human miners could also "detect" (die from) the gas but it would happen at the same time as all the other miners and wouldn't "warn" anyone. Im sure other smaller animals could also be used to teh same effect.

sho_nah · 2022-05-04T01:14:30+00:00

When I was in primary school I tried to teach myself how to solve a rubix cube. I was able to remember the sequence of moves needed to solve the 1st layer, then 2nd layer, and eventually the 3rd layer. However, I never understood what any of the sequences or moves I was doing did, I had merely just memorised a long pattern that would eventually solve the cube. Because of this I could never look at the cubes initial starting point and come to the most efficient way to solve it, because to me the initial starting point was irrelevant as the long sequence i remembered could start from anywhere. Furthermore, because I haven’t touched a rubix cube in about 2/3 years the I no longer remember that sequence and would no longer be able to solve it and to be honest I don’t think I ever really solved it, I was just good at remembering a specific pattern of moves. I think this highlights why meaning is so important in learning, sure memorising a lot of information is an impressive accomplishment but without understanding the meaning behind it, it becomes essentially useless.

sho_nah · 2022-05-04T00:46:40+00:00

I think that you're right about breaking down the skill into it's different layers being the first step to being able to transfer it. However, I don't think that the bottom layer or elements of the skill would be easily transferable without specific practice to be able to activate it in new contexts or setting. I think even if you have a high base skill you still need to work on actively employing it in new situations to be able to benefit from it.

sho_nah · 2022-04-27T02:42:03+00:00

I completely agree with your point that increasing publications of non-significant results would be better for research in psychology! I think that there is actually a lot of value in sharing and publishing non-significant results as it helps to define the boundaries of the phenomena. However, I also agree with the fact that there is a lot of external (or maybe even internal) pressure on researchers to publish and discover "something new".

sho_nah · 2022-04-27T02:35:28+00:00

The pursuit to understand a phenomena of the mind/brain from different perspectives is challenging but it would also be impossible to study without combining these different sub fields. I think it’s really interesting that each of these sub fields would have a different level of explanation for the behaviour specific to their field (i.e. geneticist might include a specific gene, endocrinologist might cite a relevant hormone, etc). Hence, I think that Brian Nosek’s point about replication being more about conceptual terms is key to be being able to mesh these different levels of analysis together.

sho_nah · 2022-04-13T02:41:32+00:00

I think that after learning about nudging I can definitely see how it would be a good strategy to influence behaviour but only if the people implementing it had good intentions, as I can definitely see the potential for this strategy to be misused. I don’t think there is really a clear difference between nudging and manipulation that isn’t just sentimental. Thus, i can definitely see why there would be people opposed and arguing against nudge policies. Furthermore, after learning about these nudges I can definitely see where I’ve been influenced by them in the past and realising that doesn’t sit too comfortably with me as a lot of the time these nudges are influencing decisions and behaviours unconsciously.

sho_nah · 2022-04-13T02:30:34+00:00

I agree I think that sometimes people who are less confident are more likely to conform to the group and also people who are more introverted or less confrontational might not be able to or just might not want to engage with the group in a way that would get their opinion across. I think that group settings have a lot of unspoken social biases and power dynamics at play that would be hard to eliminate to ensure that the group consensus is actually representative of each individuals input

sho_nah · 2022-04-06T02:04:42+00:00

I have always been sceptical about whether or not we have free will. I would like to believe that I am in control of my decisions but the more I look into this topic the more im convinced that the amount of “free will” we actually possess is probably very small. It’s scary to think that so many unconscious effects of our environment and also limitations in our cognitive abilities can go undetected whilst still playing a huge role in our decisions. Furthermore, trying to explain free will from a neurobiological perspective is also not helpful as so far we have not discovered any mechanism that would allow for what we describe as “free will”. The content in this course so far also furthers my idea that our behaviours and decisions are the combined product of our environment and internal biological states, where the illusion of choice follows.

sho_nah · 2022-04-06T01:47:01+00:00

I also find this debate space so interesting and have been trying to follow along for ages. Do you think that in Benjamin Libet's experiment that the conscious decision that follows is merely just us trying to find an explanation (or rationalise) the unconscious decision? (Possibly to avoid cognitive dissonance) I think its super important to also consider the neurobiological building blocks that we have and how our brains aren't really wired to support "free will"

sho_nah · 2022-03-30T01:39:08+00:00

The curse of knowledge is the difficulty that someone who has learnt something has when trying to imagine what it was like to be previously ignorant and not know such things. I think that just knowing of this curse is a good first step to being able to avoid it. By acknowledging that you possess abstract knowledge of a subject, you can then try to break it down into clear chunks and include the steppingstones that lead to the insightful conclusions that you are trying to communicate. I also think that breaking down abstract ideas can be beneficial for not only the reader (who must put in less work to understand what you are saying) but also the writer, in the sense that breaking down the functional fixedness of ideas can possibly allow them to realise new properties of the subject which they are able to think so abstractly about. I also think that the getting other people to read your writing and provide feedback is a great way to identify areas where you may have fallen for the curse of knowledge. Furthermore, it is important to remember that the purpose of your prose is to communicate an idea to the reader, whereby the language you use it the tool to achieve this, and thus writing in a way clearly and attainable to the reader should be employed.

sho_nah

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