Imagine that you live on a tower of pipes so tall it extends beyond view.
Imagine that it is filled with juice, and that you are thirsty; you bite into its soft side, and it takes a while before you can get at the juice, but you do manage.
And it tastes good. It tastes so good. You never want to stop. You drink for hours and time speeds up and the outside world fades away. You don't even notice you are asleep by the time the sun has set, and the next day you hardly realize you are awake.
You are rudely returned to full consciousness by a dry sensation in your mouth. Evidently your tower only has so much juice to give. How? You were only there for a few moments (you had not moved from the spot in two weeks) it was hardly enough (it was more enough than you could ever remember) you do not feel well-rested at all (you were designed to never know peace).
Fortunately, there is another pipetower to the north, and the journey there is not too arduous. When you arrive you will find it to be as juicy as the first one used to be, but it will not feel satisfying either because when you are satisfied you will not feel.
Tuesday, July 21, 2026
What is it like to be a leafhopper?: a speculative essay
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Noticed that a lot of my hoppers become less responsive to visual and vibrational stimuli when feeding, wondered if they stop being conscious for the duration (assuming insects are even conscious at all). It would make sense, I suppose, for them to stop perceiving things consciously during benign conditions in order to not waste energy.
ReplyDelete(By the way we do know that at least some aphids/leafhoppers have a diurnal rhythm despite their sluggishness, see https://doi.org/10.1093/jisesa/iew013 https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1910(92)90113-R but see also https://doi.org/10.1111/1744-7917.12787. I have noticed my own hoppers urinating at night but unclear if they're supposed to do that or if my lights being on at night confuses their internal rhythms.)
Was also inspired by paradoxical insomnia / sleep state misperception in humans, I was like "what if this was a normal part of auchenorrhynchan neurobiology?"
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