The ants go marching. The result is spontaneous order.
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where orders emerge
The ants go marching. The result is spontaneous order.
Previous post: Unhappy Development
Next post: Why we trade
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Very interesting! I wonder if the ants have a problem with innovation though, as their system of optimized transport seems an antithesis to the trial-and-error (micro) and paradigm shift (macro) drivers of innovation.
The cooperative behavior of social insects is fascinating, but there is a key difference between them and humans that most commentators seem to miss. Because worker ants are infertile, they have no reproductive potential and therefore no evolutionary self interest other than ensuring the reproductive success of their mother, the queen. Ants are not individuals who come together and cooperate, the way humans do. Instead they are, from an evolutionary point of view, detached parts of the queen’s body.
Imagine if you could bud off little mini-me’s who would run around and do your bidding. You would have no agency problem, and you could be dramatically more effective and efficient than real human groups, at least for problems with established solutions. (And how much less stressful than raising real human children!) If you considered these mini-me’s as separate individuals you would have to deal with moral issues of slavery and free will, but you could resolve these concerns by considering them as detached parts of yourself, morally equivalent to your hands and feet. That is essentially what the worker ants are. The queen makes them infertile so that they do not have any individual self interest other than her own reproductive welfare. If one considers the queen as little more than the ovaries of the colony, then one must consider the colony as an individual, not a collection of individuals.
The mechanisms by which ants communicate and colonies thrive can undoubtedly provide us with insights into how to improve our own social coordination. But we need to keep in mind that the genetic reality of an ant colony is fundamentally different from a human society. Within a colony ants’ interest in cooperation is built in, while in humans it must be based on calculations of mutual benefit or coercion. Unlike humans, ants do not have a potential conflict between individual self-interest and the welfare of the colony.
The cooperative behavior of social insects is fascinating, but there is a key difference between them and humans that most commentators seem to miss. Because worker ants are infertile, they have no reproductive potential and therefore no evolutionary self interest other than ensuring the reproductive success of their mother, the queen. Ants are not individuals who come together and cooperate, the way humans do. Instead they are, from an evolutionary point of view, detached parts of the queen’s body.
Imagine if you could bud off little mini-me’s who would run around and do your bidding. You would have no agency problem, and you could be dramatically more effective and efficient than real human groups, at least for problems with established solutions. (And how much less stressful than raising real human children!) If you considered these mini-me’s as separate individuals you would have to deal with moral issues of slavery and free will, but you could resolve these concerns by considering them as detached parts of yourself, morally equivalent to your hands and feet. That is essentially what the worker ants are. The queen makes them infertile so that they do not have any individual self interest other than her own reproductive welfare. If one considers the queen as little more than the ovaries of the colony, then one must consider the colony as an individual, not a collection of individuals.
The mechanisms by which ants communicate and colonies thrive can undoubtedly provide us with insights into how to improve our own social coordination. But we need to keep in mind that the genetic reality of an ant colony is fundamentally different from a human society. Within a colony ants’ interest in cooperation is built in, while in humans it must be based on calculations of mutual benefit or coercion. Unlike humans, ants do not have a potential conflict between individual self-interest and the welfare of the colony.
I am going to change the topic, but I have question for Russ.
You believe that if people carried concealed weapons it would reduce crime.
In the state of Va. it is fairly easy to get a permit to carry a concealed weapon.
So do you carry a concealed weapon, and if not why not?