ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIESDec 1

The trash panda is being domesticated

What?

Urban #raccoons have shorter snout length than rural raccoons

This is due to #neoteny: the retention of juvenile characteristics in adulthood

An aggressive adult #raccoon won't live long near us. So their genes aren't passed on. But the more docile and childlike breed more successfully in cities

Dogs are basically wolf puppies after all

Give it a millennia or two and we'll have raccoons on our sofas

https://phys.org/news/2025-12-city-raccoons-domestication.html

#Evolution #Science

City raccoons showing signs of domestication

That resourceful "trash panda" digging through your garbage may be more than just a nuisance—it could be a living example of evolution in progress.

Show threadGrendelDec 1

@benroyce

I was watching a video about urban raccoons that mentioned that raccoons who were more shy/calm showed higher intelligence than those that were more bold/aggressive, which totally supports the domestication process!

I was under the impression that something similar is happening in Britain with urban foxes.

Show threadroyterdwDec 2
@grendel84 @benroyce They're pretty relentless when they want something and raccoons have very adept hands. I imagine a domesticated trash panda raiding kitchen cabinets. Forget privacy after they master opening the bathroom door. Before long they will learn to use a computer keyboard and mouse. Then they can leverage AI to get whatever they want shipped to the house.
Show threadGrendelDec 2

@royterdw

Perhaps we should redirect all the money/resources being put toward AI into training raccoons.

It would probably yield better results (and they don't drink whole lakes).

@benroyce

Show threadᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIESDec 2

@grendel84 @royterdw

if a million monkeys typing can reproduce shakespeare, a million raccoons typing can replace chatGPT!

Show threadGrendel

@benroyce
@royterdw

If we could calculate the calories used by a raccoon typing we could figure how much more efficient they are than LLMs.

Dec 2 at 5:01amWeb
Show threadᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIESDec 2

@grendel84 @royterdw

establish the raccoon-llm facility at a garbage dump, they will just eat that!

Show threadroyterdwDec 2
@benroyce @grendel84 Wait. What if raccoons have influenced our domestic life over the past 300 years? Our development of agriculture, markets, and mass production of goods - was it all in service to trash panda? They have bent our ingenuity to their will. We are the raccoons' AI. And if we generate slop, it's more food for the raccoon! 🦝