

The Superior Civilization: E.O. Wilson's latest book on ants
 - kurtosis
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22356

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davatk
I received this book as a gift, and it's certainly fascinating. But one thing
the review fails to mention are the excellent pictures and diagrams. The book
is printed on glossy paper, and the pictures are full color and high
resolution.

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katz
Ants and termites are awesome.

The organism analogy of an insect society is actually due to Eugene Marais
(who studied termites). An interesting book of termites is Soul of the White
Ant which you can find here:
[http://www.soilandhealth.org/03sov/0302hsted/030213marais/Th...](http://www.soilandhealth.org/03sov/0302hsted/030213marais/The%20Soul%20of%20the%20White%20Ant%20-%20Marais%20-%20Ch1-2.htm)
It is pretty readable for a book that is >75 years old.

Termites can have little fungal farms. They also have tunnels stretching down
to the water table so that it can get water even in dry times.

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kurtosis
I'm definately buying this one - here's the money quote

"Parallels between the ants and ourselves are striking for the light they shed
on the nature of everyday human experiences. Some ants get forced into low-
status jobs and are prevented from becoming upwardly mobile by other members
of the colony. Garbage dump workers, for example, are confined to their humble
and dangerous task of removing rubbish from the nest by other ants who respond
aggressively to the odors that linger on the garbage workers' bodies."

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gravitycop
_Parallels between the ants and ourselves [...] Some ants get forced into low-
status jobs and are prevented from becoming upwardly mobile by other members
of the colony._

Is that what U.S. society is like?

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kurtosis
well there are certainly traits like low IQ which can become imprinted on a
person by working in a "low-status" job or having "low-status" ancestors.
These traits are discriminated against by admissions officers and hiring
managers. This is our version of the ant's scent of garbage.

But I suppose it is also possible that if we could ask them the ants would
claim that their society was completely meritocratic and that the individuals
in their society who were confined to sanitation work were inferior in talent
to the higher status ants.

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gravitycop
_traits like low IQ [...] can become imprinted on a person by working in a
"low-status" job_

Could you be more explicit? Do you mean that holding a low-status job causes a
reduction in IQ?

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kurtosis
After high school, I got a job doing construction work - I was treated badly
and I felt a lot stupider afterwards :)

Seriously, there have been a lot of studies which have shown a modest
(temporary?) increase of IQ for people living in an "enriched" environment.
ask google. Presumably, an "enriched" environment is one that is similar to
the environments of high-status people.

A job is an important part of one's environment, but so is living in a "low-
status" home, or going to a "low-status" school which I think would have a
similar effect. (I'm using quotation marks for low-status because I feel that
these terms imply moral judgements that I don't share) Note that I also
mentioned the importance of having low-status ancestors - and IQ has been
shown to be heritable.

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lazyant
what can I say, ants rule!

