machines
The dragline
A metropolis for hydrocarbons
An oil refinery suggests the image of a metropolis for hydrocarbons, the pipe manifolds like expressways, the distillation towers like skyscrapers.
A haunting, syncopated music
"Rappers" on the roof of the electrostatic precipitator knock the accumulated dust free, letting it fall into the storage hopper. Each rapper is the size and shape of a baseball bat. Inside is an electromagnet that pulls a steel plunger upward, then allows it to fall again, producing a sharp knock. The rappers are energized at seemingly random intervals, producing a haunting, syncopated music. (The rhythm seemed more modern jazz than rap.)
One-machine policy
Today population forecasts are based on extensive and reliable data. However, no such demographic base exists for the world's growing population of machines and devices. Now may be the time to take machine demography seriously and enter into real discussions about machine population control.
An enormous machine
The couple of years in question here saw one of the largest bureaucracies anywhere undergo a convulsion in which it tried to reconceive itself as a non- or even anti-bureaucracy, which at first might sound like nothing more than an amusing bit of bureaucratic folly. In fact, it was frightening; it was a little like watching an enormous machine come to consciousness and start trying to think and feel like a real human.
The Pleasure of Observing
Abbreviation
I generally do not like to abbreviate behavioral notes. An important detail may be ignored or considered irrelevant and discarded because it lacks a discrete category on the list. It is often an anecdotal event that offers special insight.
Beyond dry facts
If one has a personal knowledge of the individual animals being studied, observations in field notes cease to be impersonal, and an observer’s empathy can lead beyond dry facts to better intuition and insight.
A study should persist
Since we cannot interview the subject, we can only infer the past from the present. Ideally, a study should persist for at least the life span of an animal.
Precious intangible values
The “precious intangible values” of this wilderness.
Independent fragments of existence
You cannot divide me into independent fragments of existence.
— The Last Panda, 1993
Panda routes
A detailed route of a panda foraging on bamboo shoots, showing the number of shoots eaten and droppings deposited (black spots) on May 31, 1982.