

Concrete Poured Into Ant Colony Reveals Insect Megalopolis - peterkong
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFg21x2sj-M

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Qz
_Everything looks like it has been designed by﻿ an architect, a single mind,
but of course that isn't true. This colossal and complex city was created by
the collective will of the colony, the super organism._

These things are a lot simper if you have a less restrictive view of what
qualifies as a 'mind'.

~~~
inoop
Alternatively, you can read a book on self-organization:

[http://www.amazon.com/Self-Organization-Biological-
Systems-S...](http://www.amazon.com/Self-Organization-Biological-Systems-
Scott-Camazine/dp/0691012113)

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michaeldhopkins
Read this before you watch the video:
<https://www.readability.com/articles/gsgv3e8z>

It makes what you see a hundred times better.

~~~
Lost_BiomedE
I liked the story, thanks for the link.

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lotusleaf1987
How could you read that in under 2 minutes and respond?

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reemrevnivek
"Leiningen versus the Ants" is a fairly famous short story; I read the first
sentence and said "Oh, yeah, that one!", and was back in under a minute.

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kragen
When the AIs are deciding what to do with the humans that keep infesting their
solar panel farms, I hope they don't watch this video.

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albemuth
I was reminded of the movie Contact (I don't know if it's the same in the
book) when Eleanor argues that aliens would not be hostile because it would be
analogous to us sailing from one continent to another to destroy an ant
colony.

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SoftwareMaven
And yet...have you never stepped on an ant on vacation?

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rosser
Has anyone ever gone on vacation specifically to step on ants?

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burgerbrain
Do those ants care about your motives?

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bradly
The entire documentary is online here:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj1v8hqtH18>

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nivertech
I hope ants were given enough time to protest their eviction notices.

~~~
huhtenberg

      - But the plans were on display.
      - On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar.
      - That's the display department.

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kennymeyers
I for one welcome our new ant... oh sorry, wrong website.

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zemanel
so, there was an amazing structure built by ants and humans poured concrete
into it, which i took for destructive, for studying?

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weavejester
I did feel a little sorry for the ants, but it's not as if they're endangered,
or have any higher-level brain functions.

~~~
jbrennan
No but they seem to have great meta-cognitive functions (ie the colony
itself).

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starpilot
I had friends in that ant farm...

