Ants - collective intelligence

I looked out my balcony this morning to see a small ring of dirt at the base of a plant on the road. I went closer, and saw this. Hundreds of ants were coming out from underground, each carrying ONE grain of dirt. They were dropping this outside, forming the ring I saw from my balcony, and returning back inside to bring up another grain. I watched for 5 minutes, and no ant collided with one another, no one got into a tussle - each ant was doing it's job as if that was it's only job. The sheer dedication of creatures with only a few hundred neurons in its head (compared to the trillions in human heads) was mind blowing. And remember - there is no leader here. No one directing things. It's like the all the ants together form one gigantic brain.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• ant
• swarm

[0110x]

i saw this thing on daily planet that since the collective intelligence of ants is similar to humans, they use ants to help them design emergency exits in buildings. they trap large groups of ants in different containers with varying exits and see which ones get the most ants out alive and fastest.

[HeartacheCaught]

it's pretty cool huh? i was doing the same except watching bull ants carrying there lava from there old nest which had a beer bottle lodged in the top, to there new.... i geuss series-of-holes?

[TheShizCrew]

Now you can feel a tingling in your back........ its not tingling it's hundreds of ants!

[elbombardi]

@Kruezoraxe could be considered as an intuition in the scientific methodology ... it is something that have to be proven, but I am not a specialist ... and you know, intuitions does not come from nothing, it is influenced by the perspectives, the culture, the background of the person, for me I learn from Cor'an (Islam holy book) that the ants talk to each other and that Salomon was able to understand them (Chapter : the Ants) ... I have no evidences sir, just a believe.

[Kruezoraxe]

@elbombardi What is your evidence for believing this consciousness and intelligence based on?

[elbombardi]

Why the researchers on biomemitics always assume that an individual ant is a very simple entity with basic intelligence and basic consciousness.. My point of view, is that an ant is full conscious and as intelligent as a human is... and that they have a very complex verbal language

[NerdstatuZ]

@raiuzumaki Learn to spell please. This is amazing.

[McAwesometon]

That's fascinating. Do you know what species they are and if this is common behaviour?

[raiuzumaki]

wow so boaring