
What the bees know and what they do not know (1964) [pdf] - ketanmaheshwari
https://projecteuclid.org/download/pdf_1/euclid.bams/1183526078
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JoeAltmaier
One has to guess, that the bees produce the hex structures they do because its
an evolved, stable behavior. A more complex innate behavior might be fragile
(change abruptly with a small change in genetics) and produce disastrously
non-adaptive honeycomb. Any foray into genes toward producing rhomboid (or
whatever) structures may have intervening steps that produce leaky,
inefficient or structurally unsound layers and doom the hive (and thus the
modified genes) before it got 'all the way' to a new, arguably more-efficient
hive.

In other words, they are in a genetic 'relative maximum' and any change would
be to a less-stable and less-efficient place evolution-wise.

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throwanem
The mathematician, however, makes no honey.

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rchase
I would argue that we, humans, as mathematicians, carpenters and apiarists
have worked together with the bees resulting in a net gain in honey over time.

