This is the one! They’re ridiculously effective, so much so that my home provinces is sinking like 250 million into building 5 more of them over the next 5 years
Nature is already a “nature highway”, we fucked it up and now consultants sell the term “nature highway” to act like they are doing someone a favor. This is just restoring SOME man-made damage to an area to a less functional state than original for (hundreds of?) millions of dollars. Better than nothing sure, but not a “nature highway” for Simba, Timon and Pumba to dance and sing songs upon.
These are great for wildlife as they provide a safe crossing over high-speed highways. They are usually design to be in already existing migration paths where moving a proposed highway may not work and not disrupting migration paths is of importance.
Are there any predators smart enough to strategize like this? I know that some use water holes as hunting grounds, but that’s probably more instinctive than actual strategy.
I know octopi have been escaping their aquarium enclosures and covering their tracks that humans would see. Just to take one at a time pray from their tank. If I recall correctly even killer wailes have been taking down human boats. In conclusion there are for Shure aquatic predators that use genuine strategy. Granted with my killer waile example is a similar case of is it strategy or instinct.
Good point, not sure the the strategizing octopi will be a major concern for this crossing tho. I guess you’re never really save from those devious creatures…
Would they need to be that smart? Ambush predators that stay in roughly one area, for example, could naturally grow their numbers in the area around such a chokepoint simply by virtue of the ones in that area having more food available and therefore better survival chances.
I think that these human-made structures provide such a different environment (loud sounds from cars, moving/flashing lights etc.) that previous instinctual adaptations wouldn’t trigger.
They can track other species by smell at least. If that path is used by too many and smells like a farm, they would probably get used to hang around it naturally.
I just think it would be dope to drive under as a dramatic fight between an elk and wolves tumbled off the side onto my vehicle. Killing all of us instantly. What a way to go!
I don’t imagine it would be a major problem though maybe it would let them get one or two easy meals but predators don’t hunt unless they’re hungry. So once they’ve taken down one prey animal they’ll ignore the rest. On a species level it’s probably not a major issue.
As opposed to roads which will kill lots of animals.
Are there any predators smart enough to strategize like this?
it is the predators that build such passages. Have you ever seen any construction company building them? Even in the first photo that is under construction, there is not any human worker in sight
I’d like to read about that,understand how it’s done. it’s a thought I have whenever I see them but of course the professionals designing them would have thought about it.
There was a documentary I watch years ago where they went into great detail into this, as well as the design of these things. Can’t remember where i saw this documentary though.
Anyways, researchers setup cameras trigger by movement and body heat to watch these overpasses and found no evidence of higher predetor active.
They also went into detail about how these things are design with extra width and gentle slopes to make them as “friendly” as possible depending on the specific species that will be migrating in the area, as different wildlife species prefer different types of crossing structures.
For example:
Grizzly bears and wolves
Wary animals like grizzly bears and wolves there is a “learning curve”, it may take up to five years before they feel secure using newly built crossings. Grizzly bears, elk, moose and deer prefer wildlife crossings that are high, wide and short in length, including overpasses
Cougars and black bears
Cougars and black bears prefer long, low and narrow crossings such as underpasses.
Elk
Elk are usually the first large species to use the new crossings, even using some while they are still under construction!
Here are some articles that talk about some of the studies:
Yea elk don’t give a fuck about much really. We have a few herds where I live and they don’t even move when we walk our dogs nearby. I even have a video of one coming right up to the fence around my property, both my great pyrenees were losing their minds with the elk less than a foot away, the elk seemed more curious about the noisy little things (“little” relative to a full grown elk that is) than anything else.
There have been study’s, these crossing are usually design to feel like open fields in a sense, so most animals will cross quick and on high alert to get through the “opening” in the field.
It’s also amazing visually! Forget regular highways! Let’s have buried highways! That’s especially good for if our country is invaded because we can install physical barriers to logistical supply lines against us!
Buried highways would be insanely expensive, and in the case of invasion, one well placed shot would completely kill logistics for the defenders as much as it would for the invaders, so probably not the best idea to rely on those
Curved Tunnel ceilings are quite strong, as they distribute the pressure of the surrounding rock/soil quite well. So if it is covered with loads of rocks and soil it could probably hold another street passing over.
My concerns with AI are like doctors cheating their way through school with chatGPT and deepfakes leading nations into war, other people’s concerns with AI are that rich artists won’t get credit for derivative works. It’s all a fucking joke to me and I’m going to keep enjoying my time with Stable Diffusion.
With a democratic leader you at least have the chance to vote them out. With a bad communist leader you kiss their ass or go to the gulag, or fall out a window.
People are most afraid of nuclear energy by two reasons: accidents and wars.
The first has nothing to do with capitalism, we can only trust on workers and expect things to go ok. The second is more a fear mongering by the global north/rich people who want to make everyone worried when a global south country starts to invest in nuclear science and related things. In other words: capitalism influence.
Hell I’d say your double right, accidents are definitely influenced by the system that precipitates them. Redundant safety features, emergency protocol training, protective gear, preventative maintainance…under our current system, all of these things cost money, and since profit is the primary motive, they will be the first things to be slashed when say, the price of energy goes up and they decide to maintain profits by cutting overhead.
Half the episodes on Well There’s Your Problem are “this vital part was removed or left unmaintained for legal or financial reasons until it caused an explosive train derailment.”
AI generated or human artwork created CP is also kind of debatable in terms of harm causing vs potential harm reduction. (IE the question is, does availability of fake CP in which no one is harmed in the making of it, lessen or raise the amount of actual offenders).
Misinformation, scams etc… all just as likely to happen via shops of cheap labor
The problems of AI that I believe this post is talking about, are the labor displacement issues, IE when AI gets good enough to outperform humans at tasks… how will the economy deal with unemployable people. Which is a specifically capitalism problem. IE the fact that work is based on supply/demand… and lowering the supply of work while keeping peoples demand of needing income… leads to people starving to death.
I think the concern being solved is: In capitalism AI makes owners lives better and workers lose jobs. In communism AI makes workers lives better because they’re all the owners.
My biggest concern with “AI” is people trusting it. It seems to be wrong a lot and people are misinformed enough already. I don’t think this is solved by people owning the means of production.
That’s not a problem that’s unique to AI, though; and misinformation would be much easier to address if you remove the profit incentive. Misinformation sells.
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