#the evolution of starting to do stuff you havent been able to do

[rainbowbeanstyles]

this might sound odd. but i do like reading everybody's process through this situation and grief. you're doing really good even if you feel like you're not and i'm extremely proud of you🫂

[a-so-called-person]

WARNINGG: Long ass yap ahead. about Camille!

Also I've not seen quite that much disscusion around the possibility of camille appearing in season 2 of arcane bcs it fits the themes so well that its basically like actually canon (ok maybe not but she obviously fit in the grand scheme of things and the one of the writers said that theyre trying to get her involved into things) i mean she IS the literal imbodiment classism itself using technological prowess to further itself (or in this case her house) and its opression instead of using it for good which is basically jayces worst nightmare, id argue even worse than the war (bcs the war wouldnt have lasted forever and even if the weapons couldnt have been unmade or the ppl brought back to life (yet), at least maybe he could have started to invent stuff to help ppl afterwards). AND IF thats jayces nightmare then its probably going to be viktors absolute hell, cus HEXTECH augmentions specifically should have been HIS thing as the machine herald, he might have not managed to prevent the entirety of hextech from falling down a path of evil, but at least he might have been able to monopolize this little part. (which would actually imply that he would kind of have to gatekeep the hextech augmentions in order to not make it fall under the hands of ppl who just want stronger arms to kill others better with, im actually very interested into finding out how that will play out once he no longer fears for his own death, if that will ever even happen). EXCEPT that SIKE BITCH you havent taken control of shit! For this random ass old classist lady of a house that didnt even have a council seat has figured your shit out and now is using the glorious evolution powers to run rampant in zaun and kill whoever she doesnt like in the name of opressing your ppl. LIKE Do yall realise how INSANE that would be???

Anyway i want jayce and viktor to starts an argument once witnessing camille as she patiently waits for them to finally sign the divorce papers she has brought with her at the battlefield cus these 2 are clearly falling out and its clearly on her to keep the beauracracy straight

[moldspace]

where do you get your sculpt ideas from? i havent made anything in like 2 years and i really want to get back into sculpting but i just dont. have any ideas

Oh man. So this has been sitting in my inbox for a day or two while i chew on it because i’ve realized this is a really hard question to answer!! I asked myself how i’d gotten the ideas for some of my recent work, or the sketches i’m planning out right now, and really… it’s just been me looking at my own work. Copying off my own notes. Asking myself “how can i continue to explore this theme i’ve been working in, with the shape and symbol and color language i’ve already built up?”. And that’s not really helpful advice to anyone else, especially if they don’t have an existing body of work to pull from!

So if a lot of my work right now is inspired by my… past work…. There must be a progenitor, right? An ancestral fish-thing that grew legs and crawled out of the sea? following this train of thought, I realized i really CAN trace my work back through its evolutionary tree. My current polymer clay work, which i classify roughly in my head as my “surrealist-y metaphorical-y tarot-y colorful-y narrative-y stuff” branched off from its great-grandparents at pajamas here, beginning the eventual transformation into what i think of as my real primary “style”, when i decided to give this little human-faced freak bright colors and a star pattern.

But how did HE come about? He was actually a bit of an outlier in his litter, sculpted at the same time as a bunch of little alien creatures. When it came time to paint him, i had gotten bored and was out of ideas, so i decided to rather unthinkingly and spontaneously paint some stars on him, and bam, there it is - the evolution of warm blood, or flight, or a big brain, the one tiny mutation that shapes the rest of the species for all time!

But lets trace it back further. why was i making aliens? Because i was beefing up my creature design skills for a scifi webcomic i had been raising in my head for the past few years. Why scifi? Because my sibling is a huge star trek nerd, and we brainstormed the premise and characters together.

Another example: my current clay work. I can trace most of the forms i’m using right now back to my pit firing days, where the extreme limitations of that medium really informed my work. Pit firing (or MY pit firing, at least) has a high failure rate, and even pottery that makes it through the firing without exploding is still very soft ceramics, and can be broken easily. So i made forms that were simple, sturdy, and that i could make a lot of at a time (so that if i lost a 25% or even 50% of my pieces, it wouldn’t be HOURS of sculpting work down the drain).

But when i was able to start taking pottery classes again and fire in a kiln, some of the limitations of pit firing disappeared. kiln-fired pieces are harder when finished, have a much higher survival chance, and can be glazed. Still, I kept working with the shapes i was familiar with, but with a little more freedom to push them into new things. Those round blobs with faces became slightly more complex blobs with faces, and glazes, and wings and feet!

I’m not sure how much sense i’m making, but i guess what i’m trying to get to is that none of my sculpture ideas come to me “spontaneously”. They’re all a result of an artistic evolution and exploration. Usually, they’re a happy accident that i then decide to run with. And the more work i make, the easier it is the think of the next thing, because i DONT have to make something up out of whole cloth, but continue with the momentum i’ve already built up. This might sound really discouraging, if you don’t have that creative momentum. And it can be hard to build up that momentum! But for me the only way to get ideas has been to make things. At first it might be hard to figure out what to make. What you make at the start might be fairly arbitrary (aliens because your sibling is a fan of star trek) or rooted in the limitations of the medium you’re working with (stout little unglazed faces because you’re pit firing) but if you keep making things, you will start to find these little pathways of inspiration to follow and chase, and before you know it you will be somewhere different. I believe that art always builds on itself. It’s an accumulative thing.

But i can also tell you that i would never be able to put in the time it takes to build up such an evolutionary tree without having fun with it. So that’s my main piece of advice: make sure you’re enjoying yourself! The rest will come :^)

[daaziscoolbesties]

minecraft endermen are really weird. theyre unnatural and make me feel off.

when i was a small child like seven years ago i would always play minecraft on creative mode and i made an ugly ass enderman "farm" made out of bricks. i had an enderman spawn egg and id just spam it and the enderman couldnt get out (so i thought). anyways having them in this enclosure was probably so i could feel "powerful" over them because to date theyre still the only mob in minecraft that makes me anxious. even above skeletons(which i used to have a horrible fear of (the real life ones not mc ones)) and spiders (which i still have a horrible fear of (again the real life ones not mc)). anyways the endermen just ended up completely teleporting out of the farm and i checked on my world the next day and they were all gone and i didnt appreciate it (this was the same world where my brother blew up my pets but thats a different story).

anyways back to endermen. besides the fact that i just didnt like dying and i did like building ugly structures, one of the main reasons i didnt play survival much for a while, or if i did id put it on peaceful, was because of the enderman. every time i passed one my heart would drop and if i happened to look it in the eye on accident my throat would feel like its closing up and idk why. if it sounds like im bullshitting you or not remembering correctly i swear im not because it still happens actually.

i play survival a ton more now simply because i enjoy it more, it feels like theres actually a goal to achieve, but i never really make efforts toward said goal(ya know, beating the dragon). none of my worlds are really created with the intention of beating the dragon, and therefore i dont have to worry about endermen. if i happen to be outside my house and theres one there, no worries i just wait for it to go away. it may spook me for a sec but im fine.

but recently me and my sister started a world with the sole purpose of beating the dragon. we may have cheated a little (like putting on keep inventory cause honestly we both suck at pvp and have died so many times) but its okay cause thats it. we still have to fight endermen to get pearls for the end portal. and so we were hanging out in the nether and made a little two block tall hidey hole and id stand by the front and taunt endermen to get them to come close so i could kill them without them being able to get to me and it worked really well actually. except for the fact that to get them to come near i had to get them to aggro onto me and to do that i have to look them in the eye and you know where this is going. and so i was like "it has been so long since i looked an enderman in the eye surely i cant still be scared of them" and i turn to my sister like "<sister> you stay in the hole ill get us some pearls"

so i go out and taunt the dudes and guess what bitch got the pit in their stomach from these fuckers!! thats right bestie and my throat started to close up and i started talking to my sister again but i could tell me voice was off from it and i dont know why it happens but it pisses me off. like theyre not even scary looking theyre just a bit odd. and i continue to do this and kill the endermen and it just. doesnt. stop. my throat keeps closing up and im not "in pain" or anything just inconvenienced like what the fuck dude its a bunch of fucking pixels. i dont know its weird.

and now this part is gonna sound super fuckin stupid but ever since i started watching dsmp i immediately got attached to ranboo (cc! and c!) and knowing that c!ranboo was half enderman made me really think "hm endermen arent that bad. granted i havent interacted with one in a while but still not that bad. perhaps my favorite hostile mob" because you know people get attached to characters and think dumb things. and then again ranboo's character straight up existing and also this one specific headcanon i saw that was like "endermen use telepathy to talk so when a player looks at them all their thoughts get projected into them and it hurts their brain :((" makes me feel kinda bad for aggro-ing them and killing them again even though its literally just some pixels dude. my brain is not kind to me about this stuff and its really dumb.

i dont know what about the endermen staring back at me sets off the sort of fight-or-flight that makes me unable to breathe for a second but its something. its not the fact that their jaws basically unhinge when theyre mad because the throat closing up sensation happens before that. it happens when i look at an enderman and it looks back up at me and holds my gaze. i dont know. i dont know why im worked up(even slightly) over a video game. theyre still my favorite hostile mob i think (not just because of ranboo honestly the other hostile mobs just kinda suck).

and also i like the idea of how humanoid they are. not human. humanoid. they have the basic aspects of a minecraft human- square, head, torso, legs, arms, eyes. most mc skins dont even have mouths anyways just eyes. but the endermen have these features differently than us. their eyes are unnatural, legs and arms too long, body all one color, one that can blend in, and you can only see its purple eyes staring you down from a distance. theyre basically just cryptids.

despite skeletons and even zombies looking closer to the player than the endermen, they still seem the most human-like of all of the mobs. they arent aggressive unless provoked. they dont like eye contact(socially awkward). they like picking up stuff and moving it around. theyre curious (i cant explain this one they just are, okay?). even the sounds they make are just phrases like "hey" "hello" "whats up" distorted and in reverse.

i want to know more about them.

i want to know where they came from.

why theyre found in every dimension.

why they sound like us.

i want explanations, i want to know why they scare us.

i want to know if they know.

if they know that we're like them in some way.

that some of us dont mean harm, but for others thats all they want to do to the endermen.

i saw a post once that said "what taught humans to be wary of things that look human, but arent?" i believe the phenomenon is called uncanny valley. what if in the minecraft universe, the thing that taught us that was endermen. or rather, the thing that taught the endermen that was us? because again, the endermen pose no threat to us unless theyre provoked. by one of us. the endermen try to communicate with us- "⊑⟒⊬" "⍙⊑⏃⏁⌇ ⎍⌿?"- but we kill them without reason. thats why they dont like eye contact, its been ingrained in them through evolution that eye contact with a human/player will end in death, and they dont want it to be theirs, so they attack first.

we- or rather, the first minecrafters, maybe (in the lore(?)) people before the game, taught the endermen to fear us. i mean we literally kill them, use their remains to enter their home dimension, and then kill their leader/mother. they do their best to stop us, but we can respawn and they cant. and then, some people even go as far as to make farms, having them all spawn in one place, crowded, cant teleport out- their only defense mechanism gone- and then are slaughtered for their pearls. and due to the mass of these farms there will be chests upon chests full of pearls that no one's using, i saw someone the other day ask what people do with them and someone straight up said they just burn them like god what a waste.

"but izzy, players make mob farms all the time and not just for endermen!!!1!!11! why are the endermen ones so bad why are you only talking about those1!1!1!!!1" 1) because i can, 2) this is an endermen-themed post, and 3) i dont like the other mobs. and of course im not actually mad at the players who like beating the game and making endermen farms and such, i mean thats what it is its all just a game just a bunch of code, 0's and 1's, so why does it matter why bother writing a whole post on it?

because when you look paste the game, when you read in between those ones and zeroes and discover this non-intentional lore, it can make things so much more,, interesting. this is fanfic material. hell, its probably fanart material too. its all for the content to see what the community can create i guess. or maybe i just really like talking about endermen and this has been on my mind for two days now and once i started typing i couldnt stop.

but yeah, thats my final thoughts.

we, humans, experience uncanny valley about the endermen.

but the endermen experience uncanny valley about the players.

[clearskiiess]

HHII TIKLS HOWRE YOU??1?

i hope that yourr well and also have leanred some cool guotar songs :)))) hope you’ve had a good nap and a good breakfsst and a nice rest and stufu!!!!! i kinda wanted to like also just state random characters tiy rmeidn me of even though i don’t really know what stuff yohre into because i haven’t been on here in a hot minute :((

rrovin from st!!1! you rreally remind me of robin cause youre really cool and smart enough to break into an indeground base thinf .. and also would hit someone w an ice cream sxoopter !!!! :))) also yknow that ghastly pokemon and also the purpke evolution of evee!!1! and also the main character of wicked im super tired and don’t want to mispronounce her name…RYAN FEOM HOGH ACHOOL MUSICAL like that scene where he’s like i know you can oalalalala and chads like i don’t DANEC ☹️☹️☹️ tdlr i love ou very much!!!!

AHHHH IEHEHEJDNDN HIIII FINCH!!! OMG 🥰🥰💓😭💕💞💘💝💕💖💗thank you soSOSO MUCH im so happy to see u in my asks how r u??? i hope ur doing well too!!!!! 🥰🥰🥰🥰

i havent learnt any new guitar songs yet bUT DHDHD i m gonna set aside some time tomorrow once i finish rewriting my fic chapter and do some drawing to practice :)) im very excited to start back on it because i REALLLLY want to like omg i LOVE the guitar bro ... i really wanna be able actualy play shit on it i don't know barely anything yet :')

BuT ITS OK BROSKI BDHDHD dw dw!! even if it's stuff im not into i dont mind bc like AAAA 😭😭if stuff reminds you of me at allLL LIKE ?:!:!:$3$3$ GAH that is so sweet and cute !!! ur amazing !!!!

HSURUEHSHFJSHD IM NT SMART OMG 😭😭💀💀BUT THANK YOU OMG !!! ME BEING ?:)37372&28383 ME BEING ROBIN IM?:?3$3&38282828283 literally LOSING IT ... i fuckign LOVE robin she is AMAZING and that is The highest compliment ... ME reminding ppl of ROBIN?? omfg ..!;$4&:&;$5! FINCHYYY UR AO NICE <3 yeah i would hit someone with an ice cream scooper. i would hit anyone with anything i can get my hands on really .

OMG LEMME SEARCH UP THE GHASTLY POKÉMON cuz i know next to Nothing about it

djdjfjf JDRBEJIERUEJ???

THIS IS SUCH A CUTE LITTLE GUY!!! OMFG !!!!!!!!!!' AAAAA I LOVE THIS FELLA !!! i am so glad i remind you of ghastly.. that is so cute and i LOVE him

AND THIS OJE IMDNFJDJFNTNDJD AAAAAA SCREMAING ON THE FLOR i love you tbis is so NICE !!! AAAAA a lot of purple pokemons omg i love it also main character of wicked AAA COOL!!! OMGHRJDJD thank you that is amazing

HDHDHDJ RYAN FROM HIGH SCHOM MSUICLA IMSBDH NDHRJDJDNDH HAHAHAHAHAHAH i haven't even SEEN high school musical (it's not thag popular here lmao) but i wanna see it just so i can see this ryan guy. though i know a bit about it from like youtubers or american friends etc he's like the guy with the fedora right and blond hair and he's like i wanna dance hehe

tldr i love YOU very much and i hope u have a great day or night!!!!! and i hope u enjoy urself :')) it's ok if ur not on tumblr rn as long as ur happy !!!

[intomybubble]

@pechikka Oops sorry, my reply got very long (it’s quite rambly...) so I made it into a separate post. Also I don’t mind reading all your comments so don’t worry that! I’m glad to get some feedback regarding my teams ^^

So to start, I’ve been thinking about this since... around this May so I have a lot of thoughts. The setting I have for this though is just if the main storyline from the game just so happened to also have pokemon too. I considered a lot of things from canon and tried to fit pokemon into that. The way this first started was me noticing how much Muku looks like a Jigglypuff lol

So examples of what I mean with the above...

When I added a Dratini to Muku’s team, I imagined him coming across it on that beach trip with Juza’s family that was brought up in the event Dazzling Beachside Passion. Tsumugi’s Chansey evolved into a Blissey during his break from acting after failing that God-za audition. Chansey spent a lot of time taking care of Tsumugi when he was depressed and from that they formed a stronger bond. Juza and Kumon are the only overlap I have with Riolu and Lucario (by final evolutions). I see Kumon wanting to have a pokemon just like his brother because he admires him so much. I actually typed up a post about this kind of stuff earlier this week so I’ll post that after I make some more edits

Anyways onto your comments!

I’ve been debating about which pokemon is triangular enough for Misumi to fill in his last slot, and I think I might go for adding in the Vanilluxe line after reading what you said. They do sort of give me similar vibes lol. I do think it has more diamonds than triangles, but they’re basically just two triangle and I’m sure Misumi said something like that in the game before too. I can imagine Misumi using his Snorunt and Vanillish to make snowcones for his troupe and other members of the company during the summers to help cool down. Though I can also see it suddenly turning into winter if his pokemon were too excited to pay attention to the amount of ice they were making. Suddenly Tenma is a snowman, Yuki is laughing at him and his Flareon and Charizard have to help him thaw out.

I have thought about Crobat for a bit for Sakyo, but I ended up deciding against it. For one Crobats are HUGE. Like they’re listed as 6ft in the pokedex and that is height, not wingspan. Golbat is only a foot shorter than that. I do love Crobat, it’s one of my go-to flying types but I can’t bc it’s hard to work with when I’m making those (relatively) to-scale team posts. I made a few posts before about Golbat/Crobat when I was considering a change to Itaru’s team and when I was making a first draft to Sakoda’s. I do see how you think it would suit him though.

Also, just on an aesthetic level I don’t personally think it looks right. When I was considering pokemon for Sakyo, I didn’t want pokemon that immediately made me think yakuza. Especially since Sakyo didn’t go down that path until he was in middle/high school. I wanted pokemon that would be found easily around his way home and ones that looked decently plain but mildly intimidating even before evolving. The one that looks the most out of place is Gyarados, but if you’ve read Act 2 Ep 7 they way he got it is sorta similar to when he bought those trading cards (except a Majikarp). I also made a post when I was still considering pokemon for him.

Oh and this is more apparent for older characters, but many of their pokemon were caught over a long span of time. Like Sakyo’s first pokemon were Spearrow and Rattata. Later in elementary were Majikarp and Nicada. High school was Pinsir and Meowth. Azuma’s first pokemon was an Eevee. Chimecho during high school, and most of the rest were caught on trips as an adult (Oricorio, Alolan Ninetales, Froslass, Meinshao).

I did think about Leavanny for Yuki at one point, but I don’t personally see Yuki thinking it’s cute enough to catch even if it does make clothing. Though I can see it as a pokemon belonging to his mom or one of his older sisters. I think Yuki would prioritize his pokemon’s appearances more than anything, and would likely do research ahead of time since there are pokemon like Glameow that start off cute, but lose that when they evolve. I also see all of Yuki’s pokemon being male despite their feminine appearances to reflect himself. Like Primarina has a 12% chance of being female since it’s a starter, and Kirlia can evolve into Gardevior regardless of gender with Gallade only being possible with a shiny stone. I see Muku having a Gallade, but in comparison to Yuki, he only caught his Ralts rather recently.

Hisoka and Chikage having Kalos starters wasn’t something I did on purpose. I had Delphox for Chikage early on since it’s a wizard-like pokemon that aligned with his magic tricks, and since he’s into spicy food I thought a fire-type would be a way to incorporate that lol. Most of Chikage’s pokemon aren’t particularly animal-like since he says himself in the game that he doesn’t know how to deal with them. Though the relationship he has with them are more... business. He does care though.

For Hisoka, I only added in Frogadier a few weeks ago after taking out Shedinja and Eiscue. I thought it would fit in with how ninja-like Hisoka is described and that it would’ve been helpful with his jobs when he was still in the organization. I think the organization gave Hisoka a Froakie to train since the pokemon he had at the time wouldn’t be as useful (Snom & Espurr).

The pokemon that I had in mind for August were Lickitung and Clefable. Since August jobs had a more public role I thought those wouldn’t stick out too much with him working at the candy-shop. Though I wouldn’t mind completing the Kalos trio and give him a Chesnaught. It does look like it would suit him well.

I can totally see that being how Juza ended up with a Pangoro on his team. Though maybe more that it heard the rumors that were spreading about him and sought him out. Like, one of the things I had in mind when putting Juza’s together was how he’s an earnest and nice guy, but because of his appearances people assume he’s a punk/yankee. The backstage story to his Giinji the Wander SSR is a good example. 

So for Pangoro, it’s dex entry talks about how “although it possesses a violent temperament, it won't put up with bullying” and “it's eager to tussle but kindhearted toward its companions”. For Absol, it’s dex entires talk about how “although it's said to bring disaster, in actuality, this Pokémon possesses a calm disposition and warns people of any crises that loom”. Lucario is also known for it’s sense of justice. For Granbull, it was a pokemon that Juza saved from being bullies by other pokemon on his way home from school and it wanted him as his trainer. Muku told him later that Granbull was a Fairy type and was surprised about it.

On something else relating to this...

The other night I was thinking about the level ranges for each character based on age and how competitive I see them being. I recently had the urge to put together movesets for each party and I wanted to know what I would be working with. I also wanted to consider the character’s personal finances as to whether or not they’d be able to afford TM/TR moves along with how willing they’d actually be in buying. But other than that I would just go about it as if I were playing. So moves that suit it’s base stats, one or two STAB moves, having enough type coverage, and some status moves. I’m currently working on formatting another google doc for that but havent really gotten into that.

I do know I want Citron’s Slowbro to have Flamethrower though lol

[yung-gunshot]

In questions!

thank you denna @kisamas

1. What takes up too much of your time? rn its mainly vibeo game and anime. i still play djmax respect like almost every single day plus also playing ace combat 5 & 7 and i recently finished watching ergo proxy which was pretty cool

2. What makes your day better? cooking something yummy like pasta or curry makes my day better and just generally playing games something that distracts me from my problems at the moment

3. What’s the best thing that happened to you today? i made pasta with sausage, broccoli, and spinach for dinner and it was really good 

4. What fictional place would you like to go to? hm i havent really thought about this but i think it would be cool to see the netsphere from blame! but without being involved in all the fucked up stuff i just love the architecture 

5. Are you good at giving advice? i would like to think so but none of my friends i know irl reach out to me so maybe i think not i just speak bollocks 

6. Do you have a mental illness? hm not sure, i never got officially diagnosed but im pretty sure i may have developed depression ever since i graduated hs

7. Have you ever experienced sleep paralysis? i dont think i have 

8. What musician inspires you the most? not sure about musicians but deathgrips and jpegmafia have kinda inspired me at the moment just because they make whatever they want without being afraid of what people think of them

9. Have you ever fallen in love? yea its happened twice now

10. What’s your dream date? i dont really think about this just because i dont think it will ever happen but i think just hanging out and going hiking anywhere would be nice and i really enjoy checking out new places to eat in town

11. What do others notice about you? not really sure about this question tbh maybe that im really easy to get along with? and i dont like the fact that i exist outside of my own perception 

12. What’s an annoying habit you have? isolation? but also i tend to bounce my leg and play with my hair a lot

13. Do you still talk to your first love? nope 

14. How many exes do you have? 2

15. How many songs are in your playlist? im not really sure i just have 3 playlists on spotify that most songs go to depending on the mood they are pretty huge though so id say at least 100 per playlist

16. What instruments can you play? i used to be able to play the trumpet in elementary 

17. What do you have the most pictures of? i have lots of landscape pics from the places i go camping and hiking then its just anime girls memes etc

18. Where would you like to go before you die? i think it would be really nice to see japan, korea, and indonesia plus also visit every national park here in the us and some parts in mexico like cancun and puebla 

19. What’s your zodiac? aquarius 

20. Do you relate to it? sometimes but most of the time i think its stupid 

21. What is happiness to you? just living a life where i dont have to maintain a certain image of myself and free from the pressures of modern day life and capitalism 

22. Are you going through anything right now? yea i still havent registered for fall classes yet and also havent been able to find a job either and i lost my friendship with my best friend a month ago

23. What’s the worst decision you ever made? i think telling my best friend i grew feelings for them is by far the worst thing ive done to date and its just something im never going to forgive myself for

24. What’s your favorite store? winco, samber and la chiquita (local hispanic stores) and grocery outlet

25. What’s your opinion about abortion? pro

26. Do you keep a bucket list? nope

27. Do you have a favorite album? ive had a few as my all time fav like Emily’s D+Evolution , To Pimp A Butterfly and Toxicity, rn though im really enjoying Dog Whistle by Show Me the Body, Infest the Rats’ Nest by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and Veteran by Jpegmafia

28. What do you want for your birthday? maybe some new cardigans and candles would be nice

29. What are people’s first impressions of you? i think people see me as a quiet and distant person because i dont talk that often when meeting new people

30. What age do you seem according to most people? my age (21) -/+ 1

31. Where do you keep your phone while you’re sleeping? i keep it on the corner of my bed next to my head

32. What word do you say the most? bollocks, bellend, fuck, worm 

33. What’s the oldest age you would date? 25

34. What’s the youngest you would date? maybe 20 but they would have to be a very specific type of person for me to consider dating them, safe bet with 21

35. What job/career do most people say would suit you? art teacher

36. What’s your favorite music genre? it used to be hip hop for a really long time but now i like rock and metal but really ill listen to anything except for country and edm. ive also just been listening to a ton of vibeo game and anime music too 

37. If you could live in any country in the world, where would it be? i honestly think if the world wasn’t dictated by money i would want to live in mexico or japan tbh i like the us but just for the nature and landscapes 

38. What is your current favorite song? Camp Orchestra by Show Me the Body

39. How long have you had this blog for? i think i started in the middle or end of 2015

40. What are you excited for? i cant really say im looking forward for anything other than death stranding coming out and the dlc for ace combat 7

41. Are you a better talker or listener? i think im a better listener than i am a talker bc when i talk i cant even understand what im saying sometimes. listening is much more important to me bc i can actually process what people are saying 

42. What was the last productive thing you did? i talked to my adviser today and made some food and took my dog out for a walk at the park

43. What do you want for Christmas? i would like more board games to play with my cousins and friends and maybe some new pants too

44. What class do you get the best grades in? i dont know about best grades but its usually my painting and drawing courses 

45. On a scale of 1-10, how are you feeling right now? 5

46. What can you see yourself doing in ten years? i honestly dont know and the only thing that comes to mind is being a teacher? i just live day to day 

47. When did you get your first heartbreak? i guess after i graduated hs we were talking before we graduated but things sorta fell apart and i realized my feelings a bit too late to change anything 

48. What age do you want to get married? not sure since i cant see myself being taken seriously enough to want to marry but i guess ill say any age before 40

49. What career did you want to have as a child? i dont quite remember but i recall wanting to do space travel so maybe an astronaut? or astronomer

50. What do you crave right now? emotional stability, some taro milk tea, and more pasta\

im gonna tag @deredere @euthymiclurker and @dementatree :)

[tumblunni]

Ohhh fuckin geez at least let me has a pikachu

Today's update: still feeling all fucked up from Everything Happening At Once, also getting a migraine from all the stress the other day and how i basically didnt sleep for two days and then passed out today and lost the entire 24 hours. Like man i cant even say the family shit was yesterday?? It just feels that way cos i spent all of today either sleeping, crying or crying on the phone to the bank and the stupid online game store that took my money for pokemon preorder yet didnt send me the actual game. GAHHHH and ive forgotten to Eat Food for like the whole three days all this shit has been going down, aside from a handful of Starburst candy my sis gave me during our Big Awkward Moment. And the energy drink i chugged on the way there to meet her because Fuck I Need Awakeness To Comprehend This Shit. I think my stomach is exploding in on itself.

Anyway! ANYWAY!! Gahhh! Anyway!

Thank you mega fuckin big much to the friends who leant me money AGAIN, both to catch the midnight bus to meet a long lost sibling and also to fix this stupid game preorder bollocks. God what the fuck is up with my life? I feel so guilty asking for money and man you guys have leant me like 300 in the last 3 months! Fuck i hope this stupid cavalcade of finance problems stops soon and i can start paying you all back because JESUS CHRIST. I feel like my skin is melting off my bones whenever i think about how much i dont deserve such great friends! 'welp yeah theyre wonderful people, guess i lost an arm' You ever wanna cringe yourself into a little ball from embarassment? Yeah like that but so much that i disintegrate into atoms.

SO I HOPE! FOR FUCKIN GODS SAKE! That this stolen money zero game bullshit gets resolved soon. But there's no chance of it taking less than a week, so thank you SO MUCH for helping me place another preorder at a different more reliable shop! This is what i get for fuckin going bargain hunting aaa. I ordered pikachu version just in case the original order does somehow turn up, cos it was eevee version. But i got none of the preorder bonuses anymore and no pokeball controller on this. I guess maybe itll make my second playthru more fun if i can finally use the damn controller, haha! And this second copy is probably gonna arrive quite late now cos i missed the preorder window. But it should be either on saturday or monday which is way better than waiting a month or something chasing up this bullshit! And hopefully also in a week or two i will get the money back from selling alll those preowned games, and it can go towards A: GROCERIES and B: repaying bebst friends of reckless money giving. You guys are fuckin nuts, seriously!! And man god i hate that im still suffering this knock-on effect tight finances bullshit from the stupid mental hospital thing 3 months ago. I mean i failed to even last a month there and its cost me almost a thousand pounds in terms of stocking up the stuff to be able to move house temporarily, all the mobile data i had to use while being without internet while i was there, all the miscellaneous expenses along the way, and then all the bill debt and having to restock tolietries and groceries and everyries when i got back home. Sighhh! And i feel guilty that i bought a stupid warhammer starter kit around halloween and i still havent even opened it because The Guilt. Like man i should have somehow predicted there would be more money trouble and saved that money rather than make a selfish purchase. But like it was the cheapest beginners kit anyway and i even haggled a discount for getting the figures without the paint. And now im being selfish and getting this pokemon game!! Twice!! Because stupid fuckin online banking nonsense!! Godddd give me back my money so i can give it to my friendsssss

So yeah in summary Bunni Feel Bad and also Overwhelmed and also Bad. But hopefully stuff is sorted now. Gah!

Also probably will be some delay on doing a lets play of this new pokemon cos i dunno when its gonna arrive and also i feel Big Sick now and need to chug a paracetamol and eat a loaf of bread before i die. Hope i dont spend all weekend just passed out on the sofa from Too Much Braining In One Day. Srsly why did this all happen all at once...

Also i probably wont go with the idea of twin protagonists headcanon for this LP, cos the whole Untimely Lost Sibling Madness kinda made that a sore spot to think about. One good side of getting the version i didnt want is that i can pick the female protagonist if i get pikachu version, and go with the personality i was gonna use for the female sibling. Cos actually it seems that your rival dude's perosnality is kinda simular to what i was gonna do for the male sibling? Could just have that sort of relationshup as a best buddies thing. And playing as a sassy roughhousing jock girl protag is gonna be more fun than playing The Nice And Shy Dude which is basically what i always do in every game cos its just me??? Would get more fun character lets player contrast with protagonist Darcy.

Also fuck i am gonna have SO MUCH to talk about in this first episode! Watchers who dont follow me on tumblr are gonna be so confused. "Hey youtube i just got out of mental hospital and found my long lost sister who thought i was dead, anyway never mind that lets talk about pokemon! I was gonna say i dont have any baby pictures of me when the original Pokemon Yellow came out, but here's the one i found on a facebook obituary for myself yesterday..."

What the fuck is my life, seriously?

Also if my starter ends up being a male pikachu im gonna name it Chuppy after my original one in pokemon yellow. And if its a girl i'll call it Ghostwriter after my mimikyu and pretend that its a mimikyu that just has an extra high quality disguise. Seriously, picturing all of these cute antics and tiny costumes on mimikyu makes it all even sweeter to me! I love ghosties!!

LOL I JUST REALIZED MAYBE IM A GHOST TRAINER COS I WAS "DEAD" ALL THESE YEARS AND DIDNT KNOW IT

Seriously man if there are any parents out there reading this, dont fuckin lie to your 4 year old that her sibling is dead just because the dad divorced you. There are no words for how fucked up this is. Except 'oh i guess thats why my favourite digimon frontier character is duskmon'. I fuckin thought that plot was unrealistic when i first watched it! XD actually i think duskmon is straight up my favourite digimon design and the one i'd probably pick as my partner, even though i prefer Impmon's plot from the third season. I kinda wanna go make a fanmade full evolution line for Duskmon now?? Man why am i getting so wildly off topic!

I really need to eat a food and sleep a sleep

[s3venpounds]

1 - 102

ASK MEE RIDICULOUSLY PERSONAL THINGSSSSSSSSSSSS YEEEEEEEEEEEE i love this shit

thanks for the ask anon, at this point im sure yall already know everything about me but hey whats a couple more questions c:

1.) what’s a song you depict with your childhood?

YIKES tough right off the bat huh? it would have to be the opening to digimon frontier ayyyyyyyyyy i still listen to that shit every fucking month. its that or disney’s hercules i can go the distance that shit was just MMMMMMM good shit2.) did you have a memorable childhood pet?

yep a blue and white love bird my family called quick silver we taught it to do adorable little tricks like pick up our pencils when we do homework and it rolls away3.) have you ever been drunk?

hehe yeah fun times4.) have you ever tried drugs?

yup! curious about trying more hard drugs but also i dont wanna get addicted or like idk die/get arrested5.) have you ever completely regretted what you’ve said?

ALL THE FUCKING TIME. infact at work i told a customer we didnt have a thing and the customer was like whats that right behind u, and it was the thing they were looking for i felt so stupid lmao6.) have you ever made someone cry?

yeah.7.) has someone ever made you cry?

yeah.8.) have you ever been in love? if so, describe the moment you knew it.

honestly idk if i ever have been in love. I would think that i have but yknow you never know what the future holds so looking back something in the past could pale in comparison to something in the future9.) which came first the chicken or the egg?

the chicken, evolved from some other bird10.) are you part of the lgbtq+ community? do you support them?

dunno if im part of the community by status but i wholeheartedly approve and support them. speaking just for myself though I just think I’m me and nothing else. whether im non binary or male or female or something else doesn’t matter to me. im attracted to who im attracted to, feel what i feel, and do what i want with a hint of salt. If plants can have like 10 000 genders or whatever, then anyone can be whatever they want unless its something fucked up like age fluid lmao if youre 60 youre 60 even if you have the “mind of a 14 year old”11.) how many siblings do you have?

412.) have you ever been in love with someone you couldn’t love?

yeah in fact just recently13.) are you a good cook?

fuck no. i fucking wish tho, not even a good cook i just wanna be able to copy recipes on tasty’s facebook page hahaha14.) what is your favorite tv show?

right now i dont have one and i definitely dont watch tv shows often unless you count anime then haikyuu!! or My hero Academia15.) what is the last movie you cried during?

i think it was a tyler perry movie something about a funeral and a family reunion honestly i cry when any movie has a really strong family sorta bonding specially if the family was broken at first and they all healed together and became closer as a result16.) what are songs you’ve cried to when you first heard them? (if any)

none, i did cry whe i was listening to wild wild love by GRL and pitbull for some reason? 17.) do you have a middle name?

nope i do have a nickname given to me by distant relatives18.) have you been out of your country?

yeah thankfully ive been out of canada multiple times19.) are you a chocolate fan or not?

love chocolate in fact im drinking hot chocolate right now, little cold going on so i need it20.) how many people have you kissed?

lips? less than 15, in general no matter where? couldnt count21.) what is your favorite album?

the only album i loved in its entirety has been marianas trench master piece theatre22.) what is your dream car?

2003 dodge viper23.) what is your lucky/favorite number?

i always wanted to be ironic and say 13 but i’ve kinda been leaning towards 10 like hinata’s jersey number24.) what is your favorite flower?

lilacs cuz the color25.) books or movies, why?

movies, less thinking for me26.) have you ever been on a blind date?

nope but i’d love to try it27.) has one of your friends ever backstabbed you?

yep28.) have you ever backstabbed one of your friends?

i dont think i have? not consciously.29.) what thing do you symbolize love with?

an act of self sacrifice or something handmade or personally tailored to the individual receiving30.) do you have neat handwriting?

i adore neat handwriting! its like a breath of fresh air, simple and precise to read, and it feels like you can read faster when it is31.) do you have a friend with benefits?

nope but i’d love to have one!32.) do you want a friend with benefits?

just said but yeah i’d love one!33.) if you could be anything in the world, what would you be?

A hero.34.) have you ever been blackout drunk?

nope but my body refuses to drink any more alcohol once i get to my good buzz point. like all alcohol makes me wanna throw up the second i get past the point its almost like my mind and body are two seperate beings lmao35.) have you ever met someone famous?

i think i have? one time when i went bowling with some relatives, there was a crowd gathering around this blonde dude who was playing house of the dead and this one guy in the crowd approached me saying “ do you know who he is? hes famous?” and then i blanked out after that because i just wanted to watch someone play and mentally check out for an hour36.) how many concerts have you been to?

3 concerts! all which were very fun !37.) which concerts have you been to?

one was an ed sheeran concert for his divide album, another was a marianas trench concert in klondike days edmonton, and the last was a country concert im not sure who it was my sister wanted me to go with her38.) do you have a hidden talent?

i can match any generation 1 pokemon just from their cries some generation 2 but beyond that only a handful from each other generation39.) what do you do when you’re stressed?

masturbate. honestly its the only sure fire thing i’ve done that clears my head for the longest time and relaxes me lmao40.) do you think money can buy love?

of course! just depends how you use it! like if youre just throwing money at random people like “hey love me” itll be fake, but if you say, pay off a struggling student’s loans in full and give em a good fresh start im sure theyll be grateful to you for years to come. or if you pay for someone to get super super expensive surgery so they can die from old age rather than a disease or something then yeah they’d love you forever41.) how old would you date?

honestly not sure, i havent really tried dating anyone a lot older than me i usually date within 4-5 years older or younger? though i dont think i’d see a problem dating someone 10 years older than me42.) have you ever done something illegal?

hehe. ye.43.) what is your biggest fear?

death. too long to elaborate44.) what is an unusual fear you have?

fear of what happens after death45.) can you drive?

nope but i plan to learn how to and take my exam within the next 2 ish months46.) do you believe in supernatural creatures?

of course! as many evolutions that were made common place theres bound to be evolutions that somehow spurred legends and mysteries47.) do you believe in karma?

of course! 100% of the time i expect some stranger to just walk up to me and start slapping me or punching me or throwing water or soda in my face for something i did, though i also prepare myself to say” okay i probably deserved that but can i ask why?”48.) what is one quality you need in your partner?

need to love physical affection, if not i dont think i can last with them, physical affection is so important to me its just as important as saying i love you, it like reassures me that theyre there with me in that moment and that theyre happy and just. physical stuff tells me a lot ok49.) do looks matter?

on first impression? oh hell yeah. keep in mind strictly first impression. im not gonna cut off a potential friendship or relationship because someones not my type or whatever i cut people off if they do something fucked up and horrible50.) does size matter?

to some people im not one of them51.) who is the last person you forgave?

I can’t really remember, i forgive people for small stuff all the time but with big personal mistakes i usually hold grudges52.) what is your favorite ice cream flavor?

French Vanilla53.) what languages can you speak besides english?

none but i plan to learn sign language eventually that and visaya54.) ever been on a plane?

yep! i’ve been out of the country so that definitely means by plane i dont know anyone who goes on roadtrips long enough to get out of the country55.) ever been on a boat?

yeah! i thought i’d be seasick but turns out i enjoy being on the water its kinda calming56.) is there anyone you’ve lost touch with that you wish you hadn’t?

yeah my childhood friend ralph, cool dude but our friend groups and interests just kinda diverged57.) are there any friendships you regret?

yeah..58.) are there any friendships you wish you could make?

oh hell yeah! there was this one girl who always ate at the same cafeteria as me and my friend group and i regret not inviting her over and being her friend59.) have you ever stayed awake for 24 (+) hours?

yeah! specially during summer it really sucks and i only do that when my mental state is at a record low self punishment i spose60.) have you ever walked outside after 12 am?

hell to the yeah! its the best! like a music video or adventure but it really just helps me clear my mind. oh wait i guess that kinda counts for the calms me down thing so late night walks and masturbating bahahaha61.) have you ever seen a sunrise completely through?

yep! one time with an ex girlfriend! we stayed from 2 am till 10 am i think singing songs and talking and cuddling on those big swings with a bowl at the bottom62.) are you scared of rollercoasters?

NO !!! I LOVE ROLLERCOASTERS!!!! im kind of an adrenaline junkie!63.) on a scale of 1-10 how stressed are you usually?

i personally feel like a 3 but thats probably because im already used to a 7 because of old issues i need sorted out that i’ve just kinda grown to live with the stress64.) do you have any plans this weekend?

considering its sunday? no, next weekend? im working65.) do you miss anyone right now?

yeah. i miss em a lot.66.) who do you wish you were talking to right now?

K,Z, and C i miss em67.) if you could have any superpower, what would it be?

the power to fly or have wings that can make me fly. I associate flying with true freedom. 68.) who is your favorite superhero?

All Might69.) are you dirty minded?

ridiculously70.) what is your favorite song from every decade starting at that 80’s?

im too lazy for that shit bro…71.) how many kids, if any, do you want?

2 preferably? 72.) who is your biggest OTP?

im not super into shipping just cause it can get pretty toxic but asami and korra73.) what is your favorite food?

aw man im too much of a carnivore to pick just one thing man. uhh fried chicken or this one pork dish my mom makes thats super easy to make its like canned beans with this orange sweet kinda sauce and pork belly slices and potato chunks omggggg i eat so much of that. the last time my mom made that i actually ate the whole thing and i had to make more for everyone else lmao74.) do you want to be married one day?

yeah. it’d be nice not to have to worry about being alone for the rest of my life75.) dogs or cats?

dogs are great and so are cats though i have more patience for cats than i do for dogs. dogs to me are like energetic little kids and thats fine as long as im not dealing with them for an extended period amount of time i get drained pretty easy. cats are like roommates show you love and attention when they want but arent opposed to keeping you company the whole day76.) do you drink enough water daily?

i have no fukcing clue i literally just drink water whenever i have an excuse to drink.77.) have you ever seen a shooting star?

not that i know of? like theres a few times i think i did but i wanna see one thats like unmistakably a shooting star or comet thatd be neat too78.) if you had the opportunity to go to the moon, would you?

not long term? yeah id love to, just to feel what zero g feels like and the view of earth

79.) how many best friends do you have?

3 ish……..80.) when was the last time you cried?

a few nights ago when they stopped talking to me i cried like a little baby lmao ahhhhhhhhhh yikes81.) have you ever laughed so hard you peed yourself?

nope82.) have you ever made anyone laugh so hard they peed?

i think? there was this one dude who literally thought everything i said was genuinely funny though to this day i have no idea if he was serious or not. i also have not seen that dude ever since83.) if you could travel any where in the world, where would you go?

Venice Italy.84.) what are 3 words you would use to describe yourself?

Lonely, Filth, dependant85.) do you consider yourself a loyal person?

no, if my loyalty gets in the way of what i think is the right thing to do then i disregard the loyalty86.) what is your favorite season and why?

Winter. for some reason growing up i always felt like winter was unappreciated and i had this train of thought like “ even the cold needs to be loved” that and most of my wardrobe is just winter stuff. plus midnight walks feel so much nicer since its so cold out you know for a fact no one else would be walking around because whos gonna wait in a dark alley at -30 to mug, rape or kidnap someone.87.) have you ever told anyone you loved them, and didn’t mean it?

nope. if i ever said it i meant it.88.) do you know how to play any instruments?

not reliably. like i know some songs on guitar from youtube tutorials but i can’t play the guitar in all circumstances yknow like i learned the song without mastering the basics89.) do like like falling asleep to music or not?

nope. i need like silence to sleep but ambient noise is preferred. music gives my brain something to focus on and thus stay awake90.) what are you allergic to?

pet fur or feathers and stuff. my eyes get puffy, my nose clogs up and my skin itches91.) have you ever wanted to be someone else for a day just so you could see what there life is like?

a sad, extremely rich person and a happy, extremely poor person. to show me what to be grateful for92.) if you could be any character from your favorite tv show would you, and if so, who would you be?

huh, thats tough… if its haikyuu i’d love to be daichi, if its my hero academia its hawks or deku93.) if you could be best friends with any celebrity who would it be and why

Gal Gadot, I feel like she’d be such a positive influence on my life and that thing she does to people who are shorter than her where she cups their face in her hands omg i’d melt everytime. i just kinda wanna be like a little brother to her lol

94.) are you outgoing?

i would say i am?95.) have you ever wanted to kiss someone, but weren’t brave enough to?

oh fuck yeah im fucking gutless96.) are you a good flirt?

nope. awkward and weird af97.) have you ever been turned down, or have you ever turned anyone down?

yup all the time. part of life98.) which planet is your favorite?

never really thought about planets much but i do stan pluto as a planet99.) are you superstitious?

to an extent100.) are you a good listener?

i’d like to think i am101.) are you a good kisser

also like to think i am probs not102.) would you kiss any of your friends?

all of them honestly well not all of them. mostly cuz yknow theyre taken or theyd probably hate me if i did some of them are super defensive about physical intimacy

[transhumanitynet]

The Future You That You Least Suspect

The other night my teenage boys asked me what was on my mind (likely looking for material to make fun of me. Just kidding, they’re thoughtful kids).

Instead of trying to “kid proof” my thoughts or rush the conversation, I wrote them this letter. First, to explain that I’m consumed by how we think about and where we look for answers to the biggest questions of our time (listed below), and second, to propose an alternative way of finding answers (hint: I found inspiration in an amoeba).

How are we going to address climate change before it creates global chaos?

What jobs will be available for my kids when they finish school? What should they study?

Over the next few decades, how will we re-train ourselves fast enough — again and again — to remain employed and useful as technology becomes more capable?

Can the human race cooperate well enough to solve our biggest problems or will the future simply overwhelm us?

Most importantly, where do we look to find answers to these questions?

Hopefully I didn’t ruin the possibility that my kids will ever again ask me what’s on my mind 🙂

##

Boys,

There is an old joke where a man is looking for his keys under a street light. Another person walks by and inquires, “Sir, are you certain you lost your keys here?”

“No” the man replies, “I lost them across the street.”

Confused, the stranger says, “Then why are you looking here?”

The man responded, “The light is much brighter here!”

Credit

This comic is as humorous as it is true. All too often, we each do this when we’re trying to solve something. It’s where our brains naturally take us first.

Our imaginations are constrained to the familiar (under the light), so we have a hard time finding answers to difficult questions and problems because the answers often lie in the unknown (or in the comic above, the darkness). Staying in the light is natural, easy, and intuitive, but this limits our discovery potential.

I. How to look in the dark?

History can give us some hints about how others found interesting things in the dark. For example, we discovered that:

the sun is the center of our planetary swarm

the earth is round

the physical world is a bunch of tiny, uncertain pieces governed by quantum physics

Before these became accepted truths, they were very difficult to imagine. This is part because they are non-obvious and also counter-intuitive to our everyday experience.

It’s also because we can’t know what is not known, which means we’re blind to what is yet to be discovered. Don’t believe me? Try to think of something you don’t already know. It’s impossible! That is, until you know it, and then it’s obvious.

Going back to the 5th question, how and where can we look today to find new unknowns (the dark) that help us solve our biggest problems? Where are today’s insights that are equivalent to the sun is the center of our planetary swarm?

I think the most exciting and consequential place to explore is not looking outside ourselves, but looking inside; in our own minds. This is where I see the most fruitful answers to the questions about your future and mine.

What if the next reality busting revolution happened to our very reality and consciousness? And if that happened, could the future of being human be entirely unrecognizable from our vantage point today? I hope so, because the answers to our challenges don’t appear under the lights we have turned on so far.

You’re probably thinking, c’mon Dad, this is crazy talk.

Well, it’s happened before.

II. Thanks Homo Erectus, We’ll Take it From Here

Our ancestor Homo erectus lived two million years ago and wasn’t equipped with our kinds of languages, abstractions, or technology. Homo erectus was possibly an inflexible learner as evidenced by the fact that they made the same axe for over 1 million years.

Imagine trying to explain to Homo erectus a complex phenomena of our modern day society, such as the stock market. You’d have to explain capitalism, economics, math, money, computers, and corporations — after extensive language training and the inevitable discussion of new axe design possibilities (of course, trying not to offend).

The supporting technological, cultural, and legal layers that enable the stock market to exist are the engines and evidence of our prosperity. It’s taken us thousands of years to develop this collective intellectual complexity. The point is, our brains are incredibly capable of evolving and adapting to new and more complicated things.

That our cognition evolved from Homo erectus demonstrates that we have radically evolved before.

III. Amoeba, You’re So Smart!

A few months ago, Japanese researchers demonstrated that an amoeba, a single-celled organism, was able to find near optimal solutions to the following question:

Given a list of cities and the distances between each pair of cities, what is the shortest possible route a salesperson could take that visits each city only once and returns to the origin city? (image credit)

This is known as the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP), and classified as an NP-hard problem because the time needed to solve it grows exponentially as the number of cities increases.

Humans can come up with near optimal solutions using various heuristics and computers can execute algorithms to solve the problem using their processing power.

However, what’s unique is that Masashi Aono and his team demonstrated that the amoeba’s solution to the TSP is completely different than the way humans or computers have traditionally solved it.

That’s right, this amoeba is flexing on us.

(Note: it’s worth reading about the clever way they set up the experiment to allow the amoeba to solve the problem.)

This got me thinking: when we’re confronted with a problem, we use the tools at our disposal. For example, we can think, do math, or program a computer to solve it.

Professor Aono found a different tool for problem solving: a single-celled organism.

I know what you’re thinking, can the amoeba do my homework or take tests for me? It’s a good question!

Also, kudos to Aono and his team for searching in the dark — this experiment is non-obvious.

IV. Why Am I Telling You About Amoebas?

I strongly believe that we need a major cognitive revolution if we are to solve the global challenges we face. Our species evolved before and we can do it again, but we can’t wait a million years; we must accelerate this evolution.

What I’m saying is very hard to understand and imagine, because it’s in the dark. But bare with me.

The amoeba gives me hope because it didn’t evolve to solve the TSP. We augmented it with technology to accomplish something pretty amazing. Similarly, we haven’t evolved to deal with cooperating on a global scale, battle an invisible gas that warms our planet or retraining our brains every few years as AI takes over more of our work. How can we augment our own minds to allow us to take on these challenges?

Imagine a scenario where you are dressed head-to-toe in haptics (think Ready Player One) that allow you to experience and understand things by feeling changes in vibrations, temperature, and pressure.

Also imagine that you have a brain interface capable of both reading out neural activity and “writing” to your brain — meaning that certain communications can be sent directly into to your brain — the kind of stuff I’m building at Kernel.

Let’s call this a mind/body/machine interface (MBMI). It would basically wire you up to be like the amoeba in the experiment.

Now, what if you were given certain problems, such as the TSP, that your conscious and subconscious mind started working to solve? Imagine that instead of “thinking” about the problem, you just let your brain figure things out on it’s own — like riding a bike.

Would you come up with novel solutions not previously identified by any other person, computer or amoeba?

If we actually had the technology to reimagine how our brains work, over time, I bet that we’d get really good at it and be surprised with all the new things we can do and come up with. To be clear, this is not just “getting smarter” by today’s standards, this is about using our brains in entirely new ways.

Maybe that means that your school today would be in the museum of the future.

People would likely use these MBMIs to invent and discover, solve disagreements, create new art and music, learn new skills, improve themselves in surprising ways and dozens of other things we can’t imagine now.

When thinking about the possibilities, hundreds of questions come to my mind. For example, could we:

minimize many of our less desirable proclivities, individually and collectively?

become more wise as a species?

come up with original solutions to climate change and other pressing problems?

accelerate the speed someone learns (i.e. you get a new kind of PhD at age 12 versus the average of 31 today)

I wonder, is this what you will do at your job in 20 years? Would your mind change so much that it would be hard to recognize your 15 year old self?

Ultimately, for our own survival, we are in a race against time. We need to identify the problems that pose the greatest risks and respond fast enough so that we avoid a zombie apocalypse situation. The most important variable to avoid that: we need to be able to adapt fast enough.

I’m sure at this moment you’re thinking, woah, Dad, calm down!!

V. Your New Job — Being Really Weird (in a good way)

You’re right in wondering what jobs computers will take — if not all of them. They’ll do the boring things that adults do to make money, except far better and for far less money. But imagine a scenario where AI relieves you of 75% of your current day-to-day responsibilities, and is much better at doing those things than you. (I imagined what this world could look like)

A lot has been written, even movies made, about this scenario (e.g.Wall-E). If this happened, would you play fully immersive video games all day? Or live a life of pleasure and be work-free? Certainly possible, although those are linear extrapolations of what we are familiar with today — meaning that’s simply taking what we know today and mapping it into the future. The same thing as looking in the light.

What if millions or even billions of people could build careers by exploring new frontiers of reality and consciousness powered by MBMIs? These types of “weird” thought exercises may be breadcrumbs that extend the considerations we’re willing to make when thinking about our collective cognitive future.

These may be the starter tools that empower us to become Old Worldexplorers setting out for the New World, and journeying on the most exciting and consequential endeavor in human history — an expedition, inward, to discover ourselves.

Dad

  orginally posted here:

https://medium.com/future-literacy/the-future-you-that-you-least-suspect-18cf63bd0061 

The Future You That You Least Suspect was originally published on transhumanity.net

[somedaypast-thesunset]

i feel neutrally tired about all of this. you know, i’m not angry or sad or stressed, i’m just kind of tired of this whole routine. it’s become glaringly obvious that this man is very very spoiled and ungrateful. 

yesterday was a fine day. he took me to the farm to get a pumpkin like i asked. he bought me food and was overall really nice and in a good mood - he was focused on pei and the things he would do or need for his trip. i felt comfortable and relaxed despite not even having weed and not having much sleep. 

this morning when we woke up, we had sex and i went about my morning - made a tea, had a smoke and he had a shower. he asked his mother for the survey plans for their cottage in pei so he knew what to prepare for when he wanted to build this garage (the whole 6 month master plan’s goal). she said she would have to look. this set off a chain reaction - he went to look for a crock pot the family owned but he had never used ad couldnt find it immediately, when his mother offered cookig advice he freaked out ad then when she asked him about a few set of chores he was supposed to do, he freaked out again.

at this point i had literally spoken no words from when we had sex. i was just passively floatig throughout the house, gathering my things just to be organized. i went to look at what he was actually making and he said something like “i’m going to drive you home after this i want to do my own thing and i dont want to be around you”. to be fair, he couldve said “people” - i’m ot entirely sure what i heard but it more likely sounded like you. i simply turned around, got my bag from downstairs, got my stuff from outside and walked home. i did not even reply or say goodbye - theres not even a point. like i would get either some argument about how he said he would drive me home or a grunt goodbye; both still equally rude replies. 

but i was kind of proud of how i reacted very immediately and without hesistation. i didt think like ~what would he want or ~whats appropriate to do. i just did what i wanted to do which was leave. it wasnt like oh i think id like to sped the day alone, do you wat a ride home - it was just ‘fuck off’ without being ‘fuck off’. and i don’t deserve that. 

on top of this, during sex he asked outright if anyone else has touched me. not like ~oh no one else ca touch you or ~would you let anyone touch you - just outright ‘have you let anyone’ and its not a light thing. its not joking. if i said yes it would hurt and we’d probably stop. but the parameters he stil puts forth is that he “cant” cheat. but what about me? and why am i used like this? i literally spoke _no words_. 

its very unhealthy. and i dont believe its about me. i’m glad ive come so far in personal relationships that i am able to seperate myself from them and not take things personally.and like i do feel “used” but its not like this is the absolute worst part of it. he said to me, “you havent been around long enough - this is what i do, im excited about something until im not and then i drop everything and go to the next thing” -- as if i havet been witnessing this the entire time weve been together. its all one exciting thing to the next and nothig is ever what its hoped to be. 

and hes very negative. which i guess is a bit ironic coming from me. but everything - everything sucks. and like to its greatest pit of whatever terrible thing it could have. you know - “king of the losers”. acknowledging that “i’m” okay but its really just being on top of a pile of shit. 

its just.. its getting too hard to remain optimistic about a future with him. whatever my life is doesnt affect him nearly as much as his does me. my whole life is built around being available to him and i was okay with this becuse it was like “investing” in a future i wanted to have. or i do want to have. i want a partner. some “family”. but i just dont feel optimistic like this is going to lead to idyllic happiness. not the way he sees it. and why should i spend my time following such a volatile perso who is unable to commit to anything. i guess it was easy to walk away because i thought like - what if i was across the country? what if i coulnt just walk away from this rude person and i was _stuck_? i dont want that and i guess if i dont want that, i dont want him. i’m just... too scared to live with him. like i want to live with him. i reall really do but everything in my being says omg no. no no no no. anyone i told that this was a thing would tell me absolutely do not move across the country with this person. its not like.. dont change. dont live somewhere else. its that this particular person is very ... not the right person to do this with. maybe i need to be a ifferent person too. maybe i need to be a very strong indpendent individual who works super hard and hustles lots of cash an then its all just fun and games and wooo life. but i cannot be dependent on this person. they are not dependable in any way shape or form. they are a fucking prayer. and in order for me to make such huge changes in life i would be very dependent on this person. especially right now. maybe in two years ill be a better version of me but the me right now would need a lot of hand holding an encouragement to make such drastic life changes and decisions. 

if it was plausible to just get a nice apartment in this city together - great. thank you. not even long term, lets just exist with each other before making giant life decisions. thats a marriage. with no commitment. i cant. i just cant. 

and you know - i’m very sympathetic. i know exactly what it feels like. to have no fucking clue what you want, where to go, what to do, who to be friends with, who to have a relationship with - i get it. i’m really confused too. and this is such a shitty time - i dont know if other times have been more shitty but this seems like a pretty shitty time after society going through so many wars in the past 100 years that have grown more powerful under the advancements and like we, collectively, are different people from 50 years ago so what was “right” and “good” 50 years ago is not relevant to today and we are floating without guidance. how do we survive now? weve evolved to a different mental state and we dont know how to nourish this. its like falling into great advancements with no mental capacity to understand their affect on the social psyche. 

theyre right.  the colective “they” - your parents have little to do with your chances. their social standing and coping amongst evolution to bring them to such standing has a lot more to do with your chances but if along the line you figure out your way of coping in evolution then you may rise above or find your own level of “happiness” which is mostly fulfilling basic personal needs. but when evolution continually transitions through different ways to fulfill these basic needs or possibly gives you even more ways to do this, it becomes more difficult to realize how you will find your way to cope in evolution. milennials are realy seen as weak and a joke; like re-branded hippies but focused on mental health and emotions, “refusing” employment to ‘feel better’ in life when there was a time when people just took any job because the only way to cope within that evolution was to exhance your service for money or boarding itself. thats not the case anymore. society evolved in such a way that this generation is capable of fulfilling may basic personal needs sometimes by just existing; perhaps their parents pay for food and shelter and provide them with clothing well into their “adult” years. many older generations started working to SURVIVE at 12 - 14 years old. our generation worked because “thats what you do” or to save up for an iphone. most of our grandparents worked to buy bottles of milk or to help the family or for their own vehicle but why save for one when your parents let you drive theirs anyways?

and again - it’s not the parents fault. it’s now easy in society for parents to do this. a large majority of parents, nd the majority leads the collective society. could my parents? no. but a lot of people around me did have parents that did this and my parents cared for me in other ways. society allowed them to breed children who would become introspective because they were no longer in such dire straits for survival. and older generations are upset about this - dont you know they had to want to die regularly to survive? why shouldt we? 

so as we gain this introspective into ourselves and “new” psychological ideas come up and vast people are “diagnosed”, it becomes harder to accept things which harm our psyche. so we get a big rise in racial inequality and gay rights and things which seem “liberal” but is simply termed this way because some people - maybe a large amount even, could not refuse employment and worked to survive even in this era. that was the generational hand down - exchange your service for money or starve. and theyre not “in the wrong”. other things affect how you build your coping tools - where you live, the climate of politics etc. maybe you realy just had to do that and there wasnt time to invest in this modern evolution of introspection. you dont have time to look within when youre starving on the outside. so this resentmet and bitterness builds between these two sides which may even exist in the same generation but neither of them is wrong. should one work to survive? probably. animals hunt most of their lives. we should probably work to survive. no one can just be handed food ad shelter forever unless you’re a very unique and special person in royalty. and 99.9% of us are not. but should we also kill our psyche? animals dont deal with smart phones and insurance rates and credit scores and bankruptcy. they just go out and take what they want and our society has evolved past this. so we cannot just assume you just work to survive when survival has been complicated. it takes a higher level of thinking which wemay not fully even comprehend at this stage in the evolution. 

i think psychology is very important because we dont understand why people are people. we dont know. we know why the sky is blue but we dont know why we are people. and not just psychology but science and the belief of how our being, our physical being on this planet came to be. we collectively have not agreed despite the very obvious misgivings of current theological theories. 

how or in what way should you survive on this planet? why are we required to exist as we are in this society upon birth. like all of these rules and obligations an responsibilities of being a “good human” are placed on you for the rest of your life and all you did was be born. all you want are basic needs fulfilled but you cant even do that until you acknowledge the land you were popped out on to does not belong to you so you abide by these rules now whether you want to or not. and thats just government and law but on this deeper spectrum its an obligation to be a ‘good child’ a ‘good citizen’ - pay your taxes, go to work, have children, buy a house; these are the quest objectives. but why? i think our generation is not the first to ask why but the first in a very long long time to ask why are we doing it this way. not so much why are we here. many of us have decided for ourselves. but why are we livingin society in this particular way and what can we do to survive in a society which is not designed to really benefit anyone. its not about that homeless man geting up and feeding himself, its about taking responsibility to feed that person. animals do a better job at this and we feel we’re in evolved thinking. 

society has become very convoluted and confused which has bred confusion in its most recent generation. ive lived a very unique life and yet feel the same way abou these things as my peers because the “temperature” of the environment is the same. its hot, we all know its hot an we’re trying to figure out ways to deal whether its running through a sprinkler, going to a public pool or looking ridiculous in a kiddie pool on your front lawn. it’s gross, it’s not a good time, no one wants to do anything and we’re not feeling it. and this evolution is like climate change. there is absolutely still people capable of coping under this stress, farmers still work, lumberjack still cut wood but theyre fucking miserable and they do it because theyre used to feeling like they want to die to survive. but its getting hotter and its getting harder and even though they feel it the only thing they know is to keep working until they cant anymore then die crippled and miserable. being popped out inexperienced and then thrown into a change which even the experienced are struggling with creates a lot of unrest. a lot of anxious and depressed people. 

what do we do? what should we do? you cant change society you can only follow the ebb and flow like flock of birds or schools of fish. this is how we cope as humans, to live as a society. and if society is in upheaval it directly affects the ability to easily obtain our basic needs. 

i used to feel envious of stupid people. like atleast they didnt ~know this shit. because this felt depressing. like being stupi would be easier and id be happier but those who choose to remain ignorant or passive hurt a lot and they struggle through some of the barest traps society has created durig this shitty time and now i feel sorry for them. spinning your wheels over and over, dragging yourself through the mud, throwing away money, living extravagantly and ignorantly but going absolutely no where. not going up, down, side ways - no where. i’m there too. i’m right there too on the train stopped at the station waiting to fucking go and we’re here nd we’re buying shit from the dining car and we’re chatting and excited but we’re not goig and we’re not really sure why and we’re all talking about why we’re not going but we’re still not going but hey atleast hey still got cookies. 

no one person is driving the train either. its like a group effort where everyone on the train has to believe youre moving forward for it to start but if one jack ass thinks youre not, then its a complete halt. 

life is hard but i dont think alot of people realize exactly how hard it is. im trying to learn to appreciate the little things. people with greater minds who had better understanding and less luxuries of the era coped with appreciating little things. taking bike rides in the fall in the nice downtown streets; it’s been a highlight of the season. painting in a studio this week; sure it was not glamorous or anything but i actively went out and created art with others. my room is neat and clean and organized. i did laundry with ease on my own time for free. 

i wasnt upset i “had to” walk home. i apreciated the fall weather & buzz of halloween approaching, time to think without screens of distraction, exersize and activity, the ability to buy cat food & cat litter. im not angry about it. i’m tired of being angry about a train im not really driving. if i can never truly conceptualize what i want because of society why keep trying. why cry over spilled milk. 

[topsolarpanels]

Inspired by nature: the thrilling new science that could transform medicine | Laura Parker

The Long Read: Jeffrey Karp is at the forefront of a new generation of scientists using natures blueprints to make breakthrough medical technologies. Can bioinspiration help to solve some of humanitys most urgent problems?

In the summer of 2005, Jeffrey Karp, a bioengineer at Brigham and Womens Hospital( BWH) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was running late one night when he spotted a journal article on a colleagues desk. What caught his eye was not the text itself, but the full-page colour illustration of Spider-Man that accompanied it. Intrigued, Karp sat down and started reading.

The article detailed how a group of researchers had created a new synthetic material by simulating the properties of gecko feet whose tiny, hair-like pillars let the lizard to stick to and detach from apparently sheer surfaces with ease. Imagined utilizes for the material included gloves that would allow military personnel to climb up the sides of buildings, just like Spider-Man.

The wheels in my head started turning, Karp told me lately. His first thought was to use the material to create a new type of medical tape that could replace sutures and staples, which are able to injury sensitive tissue surrounding wounds. Karp was working alongside the world-renowned bioengineer Robert Langer at the time, analyse ways to create biodegradable materials that could seal meanders inside the human body. The videotape could even go a step further than sutures or surgical staples, he thought, and be used in particularly intricate surgical procedures for instance, tying together the small intestine during gastric bypass surgery.

The next morning, Karp stopped by Langers office and persuaded him that he had come up with the perfect notion to win a prestigious research award. But as he began his research, Karp found that it wasnt enough to simply rely on friction between the hair-like pillars to construct the videotape stick. That may be how geckos feet work, but he was going to need something much stronger if he hoped to bind human tissue inside the body.

When he tried coating the surface area of the videotape with a glue, Karp found that it oozed in between the pillars, like honey drizzled on to a hair brush. Next, he played around with the position of the pillars on the surface area of the tape, placing them closer together. That didnt run either when the pillars were too close together, there wasnt enough friction with the surface of the tissue. So he moved them apart again, and then tried coating each individual pillar with the glue, instead of simply brushing it over the top. Now, whenever the tissue came into contact with a pillar, it stuck in place. Ultimately, Karp had his solution.

It was a great example of a holistic approach to problem-solving, David Kaplan, chair of the biomedical engineering department at Tufts University in Massachusetts, told me. In 2008, MITs Technology Review magazine named Karp one of the top innovators in the world under the age of 35.

Karp, who is now 40 and operate his own lab at BWH, is what is known in the business as a bioinspirationalist a person who looks to nature for solutions to scientific problems. The gecko tape was Karps first bioinspired invention; these days he is regarded as a resulting figure in the field.( He often tells people that he owes his success to Spider-Man theres a large depicting of the Marvel superhero in his office, and he once wore a Spider-Man T-shirt during a TEDMed talk .) Karps current projects include surgical staples inspired by porcupine quills, which create smaller punctures in the scalp and prevent bacteria from entering meanders, and a new kind of surgical glue inspired by the sticky secretions of marine worms, which is strong enough to bind moving tissue inside major organs, such as the heart.

This last invention has helped to cement Karps reputation as a rising star in the world of bioengineering. Because he doesnt only invent cool stuff he turns his creations into actual products. When we look to solve problems, its not so we can publish papers and get pats on the back from the academic community, said Nick Sherman, a research technician at Karp Lab. Its more like, Is this work going to help patients? If not, how do we make it help them?

Earlier this year, Karps surgical glue began a human clinical trial in Paris. It is the first of Karps innovations to advance this far. Unlike other surgical glues on the market, his actively repels blood, making it ideal for sealing holes in blood vessels, intestinal tissue, even bone. It is also much sturdier, means that surgeons could use it to fix cardiac flaws without the necessity of achieving open heart surgery. This could wholly transform how we perform surgery, said Jean-Marc Alsac, the cardiovascular surgeon at the Hospital European Georges-Pompidou in Paris who is overseeing the trial.

Karp Lab, which opened in July 2007, is concealed behind a heavy white door on the third floor of an office building in Cambridge, near Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Inside, a stockpile of white lab coats hangs near the entryway, and beyond lies a jigsaw puzzle of heavy machinery, vials, tubings and jars, sanitising stations and discarded rubber gloves. Plenties of labs are doing what appears to be similar run but, genuinely, they are not in[ Karps] league, Arnold Caplan, a professor in government departments of biology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, told me.

Every Wednesday at 8am, faculty fulfill in a large conference room to discuss notions. The lab employs around 25 staff, from undergraduates to postdoctoral fellows, although its ethos is strictly non-hierarchical. One research trainee, Thomas Kuncewicz, joined Karp Lab merely over a year ago, before finishing his undergraduate degree, and is now resulting two projects. Everyones experience is different and thats what matters most here, he told me. Not some dumb pyramid scheme where we have to work our way up through the ranks. Lab employees are encouraged to email Karp whenever they have a question or idea. If you ever email him, within five minutes youll have a reply, Kuncewicz said. It can be 11 pm or 3am, and hell reply.( I have exchanged emails with Karp long past midnight. His average response time is about 10 minutes .)

Jeffrey Karp in his lab at BWH Photograph: Rick Friedman for the Guardian

The lab attracts the kind of budding scientist who wont turn up their snout at the occasional lab outing to the zoo or the aquarium. A couple of years ago, one of Karps students returned from a field trip with a handful of porcupine quills. At the time, Karp was in the middle of designing a new type of surgical staple, which are most often used in surgery to close sensitive wounds that cannot be sutured by hand. Karp appeared closely at the quills and noticed that each had multiple tiny barb on the end of its tip-off, like a serrated knife. He took a few quills and stuck them in his chin to test how much force-out would be required to puncture the scalp, and how much it would hurt.( Astonishingly little, he said afterwards .)

Over the next few months, Karp designed a surgical staple with serrated objectives, like the quills. He tested it on raw chicken and received it slid in easily, and created small, clean holes that caused virtually no damage to the surrounding tissue. The staples that are currently in use cause big punctures in surrounding tissue which allow more bacteria to enter the meander and cause infection. Karp Lab patented the staple and is working on get it to market. Karp believes that the invention could significantly reduce post-surgery complications, which are often caused by current surgical staples.

For Karp and others in his field, nature often holds the key to critical scientific and medical problems. This approach also devotes scientists free access to a vast number of solutions that have already benefitted from millions of years of trial-and-error testing. The appeal of bioinspiration, for Karp, lies in the idea that every living creature that exists today is here because it tackled a number of challenges. And those that havent have quickly become extinct, he said. In essence, “weve been” surrounded by answers. Evolution is genuinely the best problem-solver.

A distinct advantage of the bioinspiration route is that pre-existing answers are somewhat handed to us, Leif Ristroph, an assistant professor of mathematics at New York Universitys Courant Institute, told me. Of course we have to figure out the mechanisms behind the answer, and ascertain which components we care to mimic and which do not carry over to our problem of interest. The foliage as natures solar panel is a great instance: scientists have been trying to better understand photosynthesis for a long time, even well before we wanted to collect and store solar energy ourselves.

In recent decades, advances in technology, engineering, and robotics have attained it easier to observe nature and borrow from it with more accuracy than ever before. In the early 2000 s, Japan Railways Group, which operates the Shinkansen bullet train, asked one of its engineers, Eiji Nakatsu, to come up with a route to fix a longstanding problem. Whenever the train went through a narrow passageway at high speed, the atmospheric pressure created low-frequency waves that spread out from the tunnel and made vibrations in the air. These vibrations were so powerful that residents 400 metres away from the railway line wrote in to complain about the noise.

Karp has developed a new type of surgical staple inspired by porcupine quills. Photograph: Humpata/ Getty Images/ iStockphoto

Nakatsu, who is a keen birdwatcher, wondered if his weekend pastime might provide him with ideas for how to deal with sudden changes in air resistance. His intellect turned to the kingfisher, a bird whose long and flat nose allows it to dive from the air( low resistance) into water( high resistance ), with a minimal sum of disorder so as not to alert its prey. Nakatsu redesigned the snout of the Shinkansen 500 -Series, making it longer and flatter. The new design successfully reduced air pressure by 30%.

The story of Nakatsu and the Shinkansen is a favourite among advocates of bioinspiration. Many of the worlds top academic institutions Harvard, Oxford, Stanford, and Columbia now offer courses in bioinspired engineering, while organisations such as the World Biomimetic Foundation and the Biomimicry Institute have been established specifically to help spread the word by highlighting the work of companies who dabble in bioinspired design an electricity-free ventilation system modelled on termite mounds, for instance, or gale turbines with aerodynamic bumps similar to those found on a humpback whales flippers.

Still, even those who believe that bioinspiration may hold the key to solving humanitys most urgent problems water scarcity, overpopulation, climate change are careful to point out that the field is still in its infancy. Beth Rattner, the executive director of the Biomimicry Institute, told me: We can find and build mathematical replications of a kingfisher nose on the nose of a train, but were still unable to fully emulate or replicate a lot of biological phenomena, either at all or to the point where its commercially viable.

Biomimicry should be considered as a means to understand nature and conceive engineering design, but not as a tenet, says Maurizio Porfiri, a prof at New York Universitys Tandon School of Engineering. In other terms, while evolution has pursued an optimal path from swimming to flight this happened in a specific context, with specific constraints. Even Leif Ristroph concedes that he would not, for example, slavishly copy a bird or insect in order to design a robot. Clearly, birds inspired the basic design of aeroplanes, but the early designs with flapping wings did not win out, he said.

Still, Karp is not suggesting that scientists copy nature directly. Instead, he wants to look at what works and improve on it. The key is to analyse the answer evolution has converged on, and then take advantage of those principles in an engineering context, Adrian Thomas, professor of biomechanics in the zoology department at Oxford University told me. The obvious mistake is to transcript nature it is possible to do much better than nature by exploiting the best engineering materials.

While research labs dedicated entirely to bioinspiration are rare, Karps is not the only one. Don Ingbers Wyss Institute at Harvard University, which has been running since 2009, is a bioinspiration factory. There are some 375 full-time personnel, who together enjoy more than $600 m in grants and philanthropic funding. The laboratory has co-founded 15 startups in the last three years, and has more than 15,000 patents out for a range of bioinspired technology and designs across a range of disciplines, from medicine to robotics. They include a self-organising swarm of tiny robots that can be used for undertakings such as surveillance, traffic monitoring and crop pollination, and a mattress that senses the cardio-respiratory functions of babies and can help detect when they are having trouble breathing. Jeff has done astounding stuff in his lab, Ingber told me. But we can do it much faster. Were able to take much bigger risks here, and were more likely to succeed, both technically and commercially.

But sheer volume is not Karps aim. When the lab first opened, Karp thought he might use bioinspiration to tackle problems around cell migration, the process whereby cells move around an organism to aid in tissue formation, wound healing and immune response. That same year, after speaking at a biomedical conference to drum up support for the lab, person approached Karp and told him bluntly that the only interesting thing about his talk was the gecko videotape. Thats all people asked me about, Karp told me. So that got me thinking, maybe I should just focus on medical devices. It seemed to be the thing that got people excited.

One evening in August 2009, Karp received an email from Pedro J del Nido, functional specialists in cardiac surgery at Boston Childrens Hospital. Del Nido was having difficulty sealing pits in the hearts of young patients suffering from congenital heart flaws. Whenever Del Nido tried to suture a hole, the surrounding tissue would tear. He had read Karps paper on the gecko videotape, and wondered if Karp could help him design something similar to help treat his young patients.

This presented a new challenge for Karp. While the gecko tape can seal things like tissue and gastrointestinal tracts, the heart is not stationary. It moves very fast and violently, as blood constantly gushes in and out. Any adhesive would have to be strong enough to defy being washed away in the spate. Karp wondered if a surgical glue might help solve Del Nidos problem. Gluing internal surgical meanders is quicker and sometimes more effective than sews, particularly around sensitive areas where any rip or tear in the scalp will damage surrounding tissue. But Karp did not know any surgical glues that could work successfully in the presence of a lot of blood, and none that are strong enough to actually bind moving tissue. Whats more, surgical glues sometimes have harmful side-effects( such as releasing formaldehyde inside the body) and can take as long as 30 minutes to set. As any surgeon will show, the less day a patient lies on the operating table with their insides exposed, the better.

Karp told Del Nido that he would try to come up with something. Except, he didnt truly know how. The gecko videotape had been an academic invention. There had been one animal trial on mice. Del Nido needed something practical that he and his surgeons could actually use when operating on children. Karp realised that if he was going to help Del Nido, he had to talk to some people who had experience turning inventions into products. One of the reasons most medical devices invented in an academic environment never make it to patients is because theyre so complex and you cant fabricate them at the right scale, or at the right price, Karp told me. The laboratory is truly just the first step.

Karp decided that he would need to build his own network of contacts: entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, patent attorneys, regulatory body contacts, consultants, and business managers, who would be familiar with his methods and guide him on every step of the process. He spent the next two years meeting with venture capitalists around Boston, attending networking events sponsored by local law firms, consulates and biotech companies. He flew around the country presenting his work to various companies. I wanted to make it in such a way that as soon I came up with an idea, all Id have to do is just fire off an email to the right person and that would be it, he said.

Karp looks at some glue inspired by the secretions of marine worms. Photograph: Rick Friedman for the Guardian

One morning in late June, I accompanied Karp on a visit to the New England Aquarium in Boston. Scientists have a reputation for being somewhat awkward, but Karp is at ease in his own skin. Tall, with a lean build and slight husk, he peppers lengthy scientific explains with jokes, usually at his own expense. Stop me if I get too boring, is something he says often. He is fond of depicting diagrams to explain what he is talking about. Hes one of those very rare scientists who can talk to everyone at their level, Sherman, the Karp Lab research technician, told me. How he talks to high-schoolers is different from how he talks to PhD fellows, and thats different to how he talks to physicians. But its always at the same level of excitement.

Karp grew up in Peterborough, a rural county in Ontario in a Frank Gehry-designed house that his mothers bought from a local builder. The family moved in when Karp was eight; it was his first time living outside the city. There was a buffalo farm across the road, and a sheep farm next door. There was a creek operating through the backyard, and the property backed on to a woodland. I would wake in the middle of the night, said Karp, and there would be a pack of wolves on my front lawn headed to the sheep farm for a snack!

Karp began taking trip-ups into the woods, looking for serpents. Afterward, he would mount expeditions to trap frogs and snapping turtles by the creek. He got used to seeing foxes on the driveway at nightfall and listened out for the hoots of the great grey owls nesting nearby. For a kid with no appreciation of nature, this was a really big turning point for me, he said. It was like, here was this whole new world I never even knew existed.

Inside the aquarium, Karp led me to a great, fluorescent tank filled with lions mane jellyfish, one of the largest species, with a bell-shaped hood that can reach eight feet in diameter and tentacles that they are able stretching over 100 feet. The key thing to recollect is that the problem comes first , not the solution, Karp said, peering inside the tank. We dont sit in front of the jellyfish tank and think, How can we design a medical device that does what these jellyfish do? Its more like, we have a problem we need to solve, and these floating heaps of jelly might be able to help us.

A few years ago, Karp began looking at jellyfish to try and improve the design of a blood analysis device that can detect whether a cancer has metastasised after the removal of a tumor. Devices like this already exist: they resemble a small, rectangular chip approximately the size of a sim card. The blood flows through the top part of the device, while the bottom is lined with antibodies, which attach to any cancerous cells present in the sample. By seeming inside the chip under a microscope, it is possible to determine if any cells have been captured and therefore if the blood sample contains cancerous cells.

A lions mane jellyfish. Photo: Cultura RM Exclusive/ Alexander Semenov/ Getty Images/ Cultura Exclusive

An early problem with these devices was that the blood sample flowed too fast and too far above the antibodies, which meant that even when cancerous cells were present, “theyre not” always detected. Later versions of the device shortened the distance between the top and bottom, but this meant that the blood sample had to be smaller, which in turn meant the results were less accurate.( The bigger the sample size, the more accurate the results .)

Karp wanted to know if there was a way to force the cancerous cells to slow down and better attach to the antibodies. So, instead of lining the bottom of the device with antibodies, Karp made synthetic jellyfish-like tentacles made out of DNA. The tentacles, which are roughly one-tenth the thicknes of a human hair, are imbibed with a capturing agent that targets circulating tumor cells, and can extend to grab them. In exams of an early prototype, Karp found that his new design could increase the flow of blood by 10 days, building it far more likely that cancerous cells would be accurately detected.

We had moved downstairs to the aquaria cafe by the time Karp had finished laying all this out, and when I conveyed some disarray about some of the details, Karp grabbed a napkin from a nearby table and retrieved a pen from his pouch. It was in the shape of a bright orange crab claw. What? he said, in reference to my amused expression. I think its funny. I got it from a souvenir store. He then proceeded to draw a diagram of his device on the napkin.( Karps business card features a very similar depict of the tentacles, and a picture of jellyfish on the back, to demonstrate the process from inspiration to creation .)

Now, Karp said, leaning in conspiratorially. You want to touch a stingray?

In early 2011, Karp asked one of his graduate students, Maria Pereira, to help find a solution to the challenge that Pedro del Nido had defined him: namely, how to seal holes in childrens hearts. We tried to define the key criteria for their own problems: training materials that couldnt be washed away by blood, was easy to deliver and minimally invasive, Pereira told me. Something that a surgeon could control.

Following Karps example, Pereira looked to the natural environment for solutions. She held lab meetings and asked everyone to email her notions or pictures of animals that live in especially wet environments. People circulated photos of slugs and snails. We began thinking, how do snails stay attached to leaves when its raining? Karp told me. Why arent the trails they leave behind washed away by the rainfall? What are those secretions made of?

One day, someone emailed Karp and Pereira a link to a research paper on sandcastle worms, which live in shallow water on the Californian coast. The worms secrete a sticky, viscous gunk that they use to build underwater shelters by gluing together bits of shells and sand grains. The gunk is also hydrophobic meaning it repels water to ensure the shelter withstands the force of waves.

Slowly, Karp and Pereira began to imagine a product that would not only be used to treat small internal wounds in children, but that would have wider applications. They now foresaw a liquid surgical glue, strong enough to work in any major organ. It would be both biodegradable and capable of repulse blood and water.

In 2013, Karp co-founded Gecko Biomedical in Paris with the assistance of Bernard Gilly, the chairman of a group of small French biotech companies. Pereira subsequently moved to Paris to join the company as its head of research.

Over the next few years, she and Karp tested versions of the glue, each with a slight difference in viscosity or adhesive properties. Some versions were too runny and not sticky enough; other prototypes were so sticky they would not spread easily on to tissue. It was not enough to have the glue sit on top of the tissue it needed to infiltrate it, in order to create a perfect seal that would avoid air or blood from seeping through. Karp was just thinking about how ivy attaches to the sides of builds the plants root hairs seek out crevices and crackings, then secrete a glue that spreads the hairs in different directions. The hair then shrivel up and dry in a spiraling shape, which anchors the plant to its locating. Many of the glue formulations did not work, but the ones that did worked very similarly to ivy, because they were able to burrow into the tissue, Karp said.

Karp and Pereira also developed a device in the shape of a pen, which emits a visible LED ray of light that reacts to the glue, so a surgeon can define the glue once it is applied.( The process takes five seconds .)

Each version of the glue was tested first in animal or human tissue inside the lab, and then inside a living organism, usually a rat or animal. The right version presented itself wholly by collision. Karp and Pereira set up an animal trial at Boston Childrens Hospital to test a new iteration of the glue: a small, circular patch rather than a liquid version. They created a hole inside the heart of a living rat, and were just about to seal it with the patch when it slipped off. They set it back on top of the hole, but by that phase there was so much blood that the patch would not stay in place long enough for Karp to cure it with the light pen.

Scrambling for a solution, Karp asked Pereira to scrounge up as much of the most recent batch of liquid glue as she could. Pereira then spread the glue on to a spatula, and applied it to the leak in the rats heart. Karp followed with the illumination, and the glue defined. It did exactly what it was supposed to it repulsed the blood and it remained in place, Karp said. We ended up with a perfect seal. This was a massive pit, so showing that we can seal it without sutures or staples was a big deal to us.( When Karp and Pereira checked up on the same rat six months later, they discovered no signs of people with disabilities or stress. The glue on the animals heart had gradually biodegraded as tissue has been an increase over the patched up hole .)

Last spring, Karp presented off the glue during a talk at Zoobiquity, a semi-regular conference that brings physicians and veterinary surgeons together to swap notes. The event took place at the New England Aquarium, and Karp spoke from a semi-raised platform in front of the penguin pond. After the talk, a dental surgeon named William Rosenblad approached Karp to ask if he would be willing to give him some of the glue to use on one of his canine patients, a bulldog named Little Papi. Rosenblad had carried out three unsuccessful procedures to treat an oronasal fistula, a common problem in dogs and cats that results in a large pit in the mouth leading to the nasal cavity. He looked pretty desperate, Karp said. He just said, Get it to me as fast as you can.

A week later, Rosenblad sealed the hole in Little Papis mouth use Karps glue. I knew the real test would come where anything had healed, Rosenblad told me. Karp was present at the follow-up appointment two weeks later. Little Papi sat patiently while Rosenblad checked inside his mouth, finally declaring that the glue had worked the hole was sealed. We all got a bit emotional, Rosenblad told me. Little Papis owner strolled up to Karp and shook his hand. He maintained repeating, You changed my life, Karp said.

In March this year, after successfully creating 22.5 m euros, Gecko began a trial of the surgical glue at four hospitals in Paris. The glue was tested on 36 patients, most of whom underwent vascular reconstruction surgery, in which blood vessels are either cut open to remove plaque or enlarged to enable better flowing. Jean Marc Alsac, the surgeon supervising the trial, said that it tested two things: one, how quickly the bleeding stopped when the glue was applied, and two, that there were no adverse effects in patients in the three months after surgery. It ran immediately, Alsac told me. I wasnt prepared for the surgery to be over that rapidly. It was astonishing.

A human trial of the glue is planned for next year in the US. Karp hopes the glue will become part of the surgical armamentarium available in all hospitals throughout the world to reduce surgical days and complications of current procedures. He also wants to see it used in surgeries where there are currently no suitable methods to close tissues, such as in minimally invasive procedures where it is difficult to tie knots in small spaces, or where bulky stapling devices cannot fit. Currently, many surgical procedures are much more invasive than it was necessary to, he told me, but with better ways of sealing tissues in small spaces, this can drastically be reduced.

Making the glue indispensable to surgeons could also help boost bioinspirations profile, particularly in medication. I suppose as others watch successful examples, they will be more inclined to give it a try, Karp said. When I first started off, I didnt genuinely watch bioinspiration as a tool or platform merely a project. I surely didnt realise how powerful it could be.

When I visited Geckos headquarters in Paris this summer, I asked Pereira to show me how the glue runs. She filled a small syringe with 0.2 ml of the glue, which is yellow and gloopy. She took a piece of clear rubber and pressed a small dot of glue on to its surface. Lets pretend this is a ruptured boat inside the body, she said. She took a thin metal rod and spread the glue around on the rubber surface. She then took the pen lighting and held it over the rubber for five seconds. Here, she said, pushing the rubber into my hands. Feel it.

The glue had set into a shiny, flexible coating on top of the rubber. I played around with it for a few minutes, then asked Pereira if I could try applying the glue myself. She shook her head, chuckling. Youll simply have to wait your turning like everyone else.

This article was revised on 25 October 2016. An earlier version described Jeffrey Karp, who is an affiliate faculty member at MIT, as also operating a laboratory at the university. His lab is actually affiliated with Brigham and Womens Hospital, where he is also a professor.

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