
Deep sea squid communicate by glowing like e-readers - pseudolus
https://www.npr.org/2020/04/17/820707276/deep-sea-squid-communicate-by-glowing-like-e-readers
======
gdubya
Children of Ruin, by Adrian Tchaikovsky, explores the concept of squid
communication. I'm about half way through, and enjoying it!

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40376072-children-of-
rui...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40376072-children-of-ruin)

~~~
khendron
I recall an Arthur C Clarke story (can't remember if it was a short or a
novel) that touched on the same idea. In the story, the squid's imaging
abilities were very advanced, almost TV like.

~~~
jpm_sd
There's quite a bit of light/color-based communication from/between
"octospiders" in his Rendezvous with Rama series. Also depicted in (mediocre)
computer game form!

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B5Rsy12XBY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B5Rsy12XBY)

~~~
dmead
Kind of disappointing to see someone else's drawing of the octospiders. Not
very much like what i had in mind at all.

------
dmd
> "Right now, what blows my mind is there's probably squid talking to each
> other in the deep ocean and they're probably sharing all sorts of cool
> information," said Ben Burford, a graduate student at Stanford University.

Squid: it's ... uh, Linux ISOs.

~~~
BenjiWiebe
Maybe they are proxying web traffic...

------
chris_overseas
An E-reader seems like a bad analogy given they're usually reflective rather
transmissive displays. Wouldn't any backlit display technology (such as most
computer monitors) make for a better example?

~~~
lnanek2
Is that true of modern e-readers? My original Kindle was a gray background on
gray text dark mess, but Kindle White uses LEDs at the screen edge directed
through a light guide to come from behind the text. Not that most people don't
just use the Kindle app on an OLED or LCD screen smartphone nowadays anyway.
Considering e-readers unlighted at this point would be like considering
handheld games unlighted because the original Gameboy wasn't.

~~~
marvindanig
> through a light guide to come from behind the text.

What does that even mean? The nature and the underlying physics of the light
hitting the cornea of your eye doesn't change or depend on how or where the
rays of light originated. I know a lot of e-reader folks try and upsell
'behind the text' but that's not how it works.

Light always has to reflect or radiate off of a surface from the front.

~~~
0xffff2
>Light always has to reflect or radiate off of a surface from the front.

And in the case of the Kindle, the light _reflects_ off of the pigment layer
from above, rather than _radiating_ directly from a light source behind the
pigment layer. GP's comment just contains what amounts to a typo. The light
guide is in front of the text, not behind it.

------
carapace
E-readers glow like squids. _Priority_ people, sheesh.

Life is nanotech.

\- - - -

Total tangent: When that movie "Dazed and Confused" came out the character
Slater looked exactly like me. I wore my hair long and had that same cap on
backwards, like the exact same color and pattern. I didn't mind so much being
exposed as a walking stereotype, but everybody started saying, "Hey! You look
just like Slater!" and that was really annoying because, no, _Slater looks
like me_ , I was here first. LOL I got a haircut and a different hat. LOL

But yeah, squids are cool.

[https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Dazed+and+Confused+Slater&atb=v110...](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Dazed+and+Confused+Slater&atb=v110-1&ia=images&iax=images)

------
1propionyl
The year is 2030.

Amazon has announced it's new consumer biotech product: the Squindle eReader,
the only e-reader that works underwater and requires no battery.

In fact, it only works when kept immersed in pressurized salt water and fed a
steady diet of mollusks.

------
imulligan
This is a phenomena and wonder if they are afraid of humans and the damage we
are doing to the oceans with those underground cable lines..we love the
internet. Those lines run under the ocean floor and studies are scarce on the
impact cable lines are having on the ocean floor. Just commenting

------
dchichkov
Sounds like naturally occurring case of optogenetics - "Optogenetics is a
technique to introduce light-sensitive ion channels to neurons, allowing them
to be switched on or off, sometimes it is also reffed to optical monitoring of
neuronal activity".

------
ptrenko
Makes sense that this would evolve naturally. At that depth only the groups
that communicated this way could coordinate and survive

------
asadlionpk
I wonder how evolution worked here. How did squid decide to evolve to glowing
and then using it for communication.

~~~
BurningFrog
I'm guessing the most glowing ones could find each other and mate.

Not mating is really bad for your evolutionary prospects.

------
angel_j
Is that how E-Readers communicate?

~~~
alanbernstein
The deep sea versions, yes.

