i watched this program about ants as superorganisms the other night. the colony featured on the program had built this gigantic underground network of highways which connected different rooms used to farm fungi. that’s right, the ants farmed the fungi. not only that, the ants designed their tunnels in such a way that they created a kind of heating/cooling system to regulate the temperature of the rooms where they were growing fungi. and there are ant colonies that herd aphids. so ants, in my opinion, are the best species i have any kind of regular contact with (wether in real life or through tv) that you created or evolved or lucked into evolving or didn’t create.
here are some questions for you that ants inspired:
why wasn’t i an ant? not only would i be part of the best species ever and possibly herd aphids, but i wouldn’t even be conscious (at least that’s what i’m lead to believe about ants by e.o. wilson).
are humans also a superorganism like ants? by superorganism i mean a group consisting of distinct individuals who unconsciously work together for some larger, unknown goal. i doubt it.
is the earth a superorganism? i think maybe.
brian
Whitney
2 Comments
January 27, 2007 at 6:51 pm
We read this Mark Twain story called 3000 Years Among the Microbes in class. Maybe Earth really is like that. But I think that would be too bad…
February 2, 2007 at 7:29 pm
ants are farmers and herders? they don’t even need technology to heat the rooms? i agree that they’re better than humans.