<story><title>An ant colony has memories its individual members don’t have (2019)</title><url>https://aeon.co/ideas/an-ant-colony-has-memories-that-its-individual-members-dont-have</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>hansbo</author><text>&amp;gt; Main takeaway, very interesting analogy. Ant colonies are great examples of complex systems with emergent large-scale behavior. Indeed the same could be said about networks of neurons. Interesting to think of an ant colony as the sum of oscillations of signals.&lt;p&gt;Indeed. I&amp;#x27;ve long thought that an ant colony should be seen as a single individual, rather than a group. One part which can procreate, like the reproductive system. Another which can fight off invaders, like white blood cells, or perhaps muscles. The anthill, in turn, is like a body; constructed by the cells and neurons, and protecting the system as a whole.</text></item><item><author>anonytrary</author><text>&amp;gt; Ants use the rate at which they meet and smell other ants, or the chemicals deposited by other ants, to decide what to do next. A neuron uses the rate at which it is stimulated by other neurons to decide whether to fire. In both cases, memory arises from changes in how ants or neurons connect and stimulate each other.&lt;p&gt;Main takeaway, very interesting analogy. Ant colonies are great examples of complex systems with emergent large-scale behavior. Indeed the same could be said about networks of neurons. Interesting to think of an ant colony as the sum of oscillations of signals.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Every morning, the shape of the colony’s foraging area changes, like an amoeba that expands and contracts.&lt;p&gt;Sounds like an emergent macroscopic &amp;quot;heartbeat&amp;quot; of the colony.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; In an older, larger colony, each ant has more ants to meet than in a younger, smaller one, and the outcome is a more stable dynamic.&lt;p&gt;It makes sense that small perturbations would temporarily morph the heartbeat, but would probably snap back into the default oscillation pretty quickly. It would be interesting to see if a small colony is equally resilient to small perturbations as a large colony is to large perturbations, keeping some adjusted ratio of the perturbationSize&amp;#x2F;colonySize constant.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; individual ants live at most a year.&lt;p&gt;This comes as a surprise to me.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>soulofmischief</author><text>The emergent layers are organelles -&amp;gt; cell -&amp;gt; tissue -&amp;gt; organ -&amp;gt; organ system -&amp;gt; organism -&amp;gt; organization.&lt;p&gt;Consciousness is an emergent phenomenon and a collection of consciousness is the noosphere. Even though each of your organs make their own decisions and contribute individually to your &amp;quot;consciousness&amp;quot;, you still consider the entire thing your &amp;quot;self&amp;quot;. Your decisions are made based on analyzing multiple conflicting distributed signals given off by your organs.&lt;p&gt;Organizations are no different, assuming identity, autonomy, and motivation.</text></comment>
<story><title>An ant colony has memories its individual members don’t have (2019)</title><url>https://aeon.co/ideas/an-ant-colony-has-memories-that-its-individual-members-dont-have</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>hansbo</author><text>&amp;gt; Main takeaway, very interesting analogy. Ant colonies are great examples of complex systems with emergent large-scale behavior. Indeed the same could be said about networks of neurons. Interesting to think of an ant colony as the sum of oscillations of signals.&lt;p&gt;Indeed. I&amp;#x27;ve long thought that an ant colony should be seen as a single individual, rather than a group. One part which can procreate, like the reproductive system. Another which can fight off invaders, like white blood cells, or perhaps muscles. The anthill, in turn, is like a body; constructed by the cells and neurons, and protecting the system as a whole.</text></item><item><author>anonytrary</author><text>&amp;gt; Ants use the rate at which they meet and smell other ants, or the chemicals deposited by other ants, to decide what to do next. A neuron uses the rate at which it is stimulated by other neurons to decide whether to fire. In both cases, memory arises from changes in how ants or neurons connect and stimulate each other.&lt;p&gt;Main takeaway, very interesting analogy. Ant colonies are great examples of complex systems with emergent large-scale behavior. Indeed the same could be said about networks of neurons. Interesting to think of an ant colony as the sum of oscillations of signals.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Every morning, the shape of the colony’s foraging area changes, like an amoeba that expands and contracts.&lt;p&gt;Sounds like an emergent macroscopic &amp;quot;heartbeat&amp;quot; of the colony.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; In an older, larger colony, each ant has more ants to meet than in a younger, smaller one, and the outcome is a more stable dynamic.&lt;p&gt;It makes sense that small perturbations would temporarily morph the heartbeat, but would probably snap back into the default oscillation pretty quickly. It would be interesting to see if a small colony is equally resilient to small perturbations as a large colony is to large perturbations, keeping some adjusted ratio of the perturbationSize&amp;#x2F;colonySize constant.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; individual ants live at most a year.&lt;p&gt;This comes as a surprise to me.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>koonsolo</author><text>I was going to say you can also look at a country like this, with roads as veins, military as white blood cells, scientists&amp;#x2F;universities for brains, etc.&lt;p&gt;But my theory falls apart with the reproduction system. We don&amp;#x27;t really reproduce other &amp;#x27;countries&amp;#x27;. While with ant colonies, a single entity produces all the &amp;quot;cells&amp;quot;, and also all the &amp;quot;embryos&amp;quot; to start their own ant colonies.&lt;p&gt;In that sense an ant colony uses asexual reproduction if looked at as a whole.&lt;p&gt;Thanks for the new insights! :)</text></comment>