For the past few weeks I have been 'raising' an ant colony at work. They seem to live under the tile/inside the cupboards and are incredibly small, black ants. I have become stumped at their behavior. >They seem to only come out when I am working (my co-workers have ocd/retardation so they would have killed them all if noticed, and they are very noticeable). >They clump together underneath an area where a sugar dispenser is refilled, however they don't seem to want to move all the sustinence I provide them(intentionally). >I estimate their numbers at around 150 strong >They move out of the way once I bring out the broom, in 2 months I have only sweeped roughly 10 of them away.
Science is increasingly refuting the idea that a larger brain is the only possible way for higher intelligence so can they have a minor sense of self consciousness or a high degree of intelligence?
I would prefer scientific/philosophical responses only thanks.
Colton Wood
only brainless can understand brainless
Julian Ortiz
>mfw
Leo Turner
nobody seriously questions if a computer is conscious when it automatically is able to learn language patterns, artistic image styles, schedule prediction etc etc etc.
But you question if ants have consciousness because they learned they survive better and are provided with food when you're around. How do they know if you're around? Not by looking at you you dumbass. By noticing something. They aren't thinking "oh yay user is here food times!" they're more just computing "x smell is present, food/not being killed is likely"
OP you don't belong on this board
Noah Watson
>Not questioning the world around you. >Why don't you go post on Twitter some more
Aaron Moore
It's a super organism. So it's behavior resembles intelligence.
Ants are smart little fuckers. They can tell when you are trying to poison them. Of if you kill enough of them they will learn to avoid you.
Isaiah Cook
>t.brainlet
Noah Nguyen
I'm not the only one who refills the sugar refer to OP about my co-workers.
Ethan Ortiz
It's less like a true intelligence and more like pattern recognition.
It's like your spinal cord, it controls your reflexes and can move your body by itself (think of touching something hot) but you wouldn't think of it as being intelligent.
Ants don't "think" they react. Think of the swarm as the queen's giant hand touching something hot.
Jordan Scott
humans work in the same way though, we just have a supposedly conscious layer that goes over the top of that
Jordan King
Some species of ants farm food by having bacteria present on them ferment random shit like grass and wood to feed the fungus they keep in their colony for food. They even keep the carb/protein ratio good enough to feed the colony but bad enough so that the fungus doesn't overtake the colony.
Paper was published in PNAS sometime last year.
Jacob White
ITT: Ants have been proven to be a hive mind containing consciousness.
Ryder Turner
Can we make this an ant thread? I have a small colony of Pheidoles I keep in a small terrarium but some how they keep getting out and walking around my desk. The terrarium has no holes and I put vaseline around the lid so they shouldnt be able to get out. How the fuck are they doing it?
Aiden Baker
ants are smart dude
Angel Hill
Fuck yeah ant thread
Brandon Clark
>"oh yay user is here food times!" >"x smell is present, food/not being killed is likely" Those are literally the same thing.
According to this, some species can build bridges to bypass surfaces they normally couldnt traverse.
Its under the Materials section
Nathaniel Morris
>They aren't thinking "oh yay user is here food times!" they're more just computing "x smell is present, food/not being killed is likely"
That's exactly what your brain does too
Dylan Lewis
OP here, Please post pics of your terrarium, my interest is peaked.
Evan Young
>If you want help with your homework, go to /wsr/ - Worksafe Requests.
Ryan Phillips
Define "consciousness"
Brandon Gonzalez
get a tripcode and keep us updated. Looks interesting.
Christopher Cook
Its a layout I stole from someone else. I used to have a small plant in the corner but the ants took chunks out of the leaves and used it as a bridge to get over the vaseline. I really dont get how they are escaping. Im being outsmarted by ants.
William Edwards
> I used to have a small plant in the corner but the ants took chunks out of the leaves and used it as a bridge to get over the vaseline.
> used it as a bridge to get over
>I really dont get how they are escaping. What? >Im being outsmarted by ants. At this point, I'm not really surprised.
Wyatt Garcia
You biofags make me sick.
Tyler Gonzalez
prevent them from making bridges and getting over the vaseline. Google is seriously just like /pol/. All the results are about killing ants
Colton Morgan
The only time a purge ever has bad consequences is if it's left unfinished
Luke Torres
ants are very cool it never really resonated with me so I didnt follow it through, but did some entomology in second year (im a biology dont bully), and I remember our lecturer got really excited about the "group mind". One of my course friends e-mailed him about it and did some reading on it because he really liked it. (dude was a nerd but rich so I liked him)
I'm not really contributing at all but yes, ants are cool
Evan Brown
My professor says bacteria can communicate using electrical signals. There's actually voltage going through biofilms. Ants use chemicals to do the same. Just goes to show that the individual doesn't matter in the grand scale. That's why humans need to use communism. Because only the state matters, not the person
Jackson Wright
Non-sequitur much?
Isaiah Cooper
Ants = Communism OK dude
Grayson Martin
>That's why humans need to use communism. educate yourself on basic economics then come back, leftyfag >Because only the state matters, not the person Good cuck, obey the state unconditionally and put it before yourself always. Seize the means of production, amirite comrade? :'^)
Jordan Morris
>"hurr classcuck id wasnd real gommunism" >"gommunism hasnd been tried" >"braise sdalin :-DDD"
John Hughes
>individual doesn't matter in the grand scale. aka. genocide is okay.
Jason Gutierrez
Run OP. It's Phase IV
Ian Reyes
>Because only the state matters, not the person Yeah. It's so unfortunate that I'm not enslaved to a big brother state. North Korea best Korea :D
Jacob Rogers
Ants have limited pattern recognition and decision making ability.
People tend to underestimate all animals.
Even plants have differing stress stimuli when around a human that previously harmed them and a human that does not.
Jackson Edwards
bring out the yellow poison!
Blake Richardson
If you don't want ants, put out bait that contains cordyceps mushrooms. They will never return. youtube.com/watch?v=XuKjBIBBAL8
>suppresses the roach's anxiety centers >chews off its antenna >leads it back to the rape cave >lays single egg >walls roach into rape cave K-selected insect, crazy.
Noah Anderson
Consciousness comes in different levels and densities. There's no doubt about it.
It's too late. The ants are all free and barricaded my door with leaves so I can't leave. They keep making me open the fridge to get them jam and other sweet things. I have to type this quick so they don't see me. Send help.
Wyatt Lewis
>tfw no mindbreak waspgirl rape doujin why live
Jaxon Thompson
don't ruin the ant thread you brainwashed prick
Christian Jackson
What are the times you and your coworkers work? Is it a set scheduled difference or is it sporadic and difficult to determine who will be working and when? Ants would take some time to lay down the pheromones to indicate the food source is good, so it might take a few ants some time to initially investigate it and then send out the signals to their sisters for everyone to grab a piece of the pie.
The pheromones they lay down are extremely potent and long lasting. The more ants that lay down a pheromone trail the stronger it becomes. If you bring them food to the same spot, chances are that path is well known and they associate it strongly with food. Perhaps they can sense the vibrations from walking around compared to you versus your coworkers. They know coworker vibrations= bad and your vibrations= food. The last bit is pure conjecture of course.
Jayden Wilson
Ants have also been known to domesticate another insect that eat a specific plant and their excrement is a food source for the ant colony. The ants will shepherd the insects to fresh plants when the food source is exhausted. The most remarkable thing is the ants can detect when thunderstorms are coming and seek shelter for their "livestock".
Liam Perez
>Livestock
What a weird way to look at it, aren't they all technically one giant family of ants?
As long as they don't completely destroy the colony there is room for growth, ants are the one of the only species to colonize all of this planet. If we get to another one, no ants on the ship, no mosquitoes, please
Ethan Jackson
>ants are the one of the only species to colonize all of this planet. >ant arctica Almost.
Noah Green
it's not they don't know who OP is, or likely even what OP is, they just know that something about him signals safety
Caleb Gomez
>Scottish accent really takes me out of it, but I could get into it
Wyatt Thompson
If size was the only way sentience was possible, then that would speak numbers about us in comparison to the universe. As for the ants though, unless you could find a way to communicate with ants or some kind of common ground, there's not really anyway to distinguish consciousness, or intelligence from an instinctual response. It really makes you wonder about animals in general though. If they were sentient, you wouldn't be able to tell because only humans can understand the action of humans.
Dominic Ross
Killing insects and killing animals are the same. Yet one evokes an emotional response and the other does not.
Xavier Hernandez
Two dubs in a row
Landon Flores
...
Gavin Brooks
Kek at the filename
Asher Rodriguez
So what does the communism symbol got to do with ants?
Nathan Moore
I'm a brainlet but I have been researching ants a lot recently because I want to start my own colony. You would be surprised at how many complex behaviors ants exhibit when looking for a new home/dealing with threats/etcetera. They are like robots that have different algolrithms for different tasks. I wouldn't be surprised if they are learning a routine based on your feeding/sweeping habits.
Jose Bell
>Because only the state matters, not the person Aren't you taking the wrong lesson from this? Ants and bacteria cooperate in order to spread their genetics, not their ideology.
Also the communist idea that "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need" isn't very Darwinian.
Kevin Miller
communism is cooperation at the highest degree which is what ants and bacteria do. Ants gather all the resources into one cave and then share it just like communism intends. Darwinism has nothing to do with what I said
Nathan Ortiz
>a dog cannot lie
Benjamin Cooper
>ant arctica Heh
Luis Collins
Underrated.
Thread related, how to start an ant colony?
Easton Clark
grab a bunch of ants and place them in a prison
Josiah Roberts
You need to buy or catch a queen. If you are catching - there are seasons for different species when queens first fly and mate, then they lose wings and look for a place to start a colony. Only the ones without wings are fertilized.
Contributing.
Logan Ross
Some more.
Connor Morales
OP if you turned this into an ecology thread about your pet ant colony in an office, it would be cool. Instead you're another fag asking about consciousness. OP is a faggot
William Miller
why do we lie?
Camden Richardson
>Board most likely to have its browsers be in college/uni >Advocating communism
Pure pottery.
Angel Richardson
WhenI was a kid two huge ant colonies went to war on the sidewalk in front of my house. I watched them kill each other for days. There were even ants that came to collect the dead and dying. My grandma ruined the fun by hosing them down with raid.
Ryan Murphy
ants are my fav insects. they're clean, orderly, very organized and a natural pest deterrent. if you have an ant problem don't kill them, it makes a mess and contaminates the area with poison. just make sure they can't get to your food source and they will disperse within hours.
Andrew Rogers
OP here, turned and colony in scattered ant wasteland. Decided to test their capabilities, so far ~75% have returned. To the ones that have been lost Godspeed.
I also support Communism, global Communism under an AI overlord would be paradise.
Ayden Wilson
Even if you end up as my lifestock?
Nicholas Long
Yes.
Carter Phillips
It makes sense when describing ant societies.
They also have individual intelligence, they can pass the mirror test and an study showed that most of the time ants don't work, wich it's interesting cause it will mean that they aren't just drones without will.
Jack Clark
...
Kevin Hernandez
WE ARE SELF ORGANIZING CREATURES.. COMMUNISM INTERFERES WITH THIS AND HAS ALWAYS FAILED
Samuel Martinez
What were kibutzes in Israel?
Sometimes we self-organize into communes. The shit part is - usually there is a power-hungry dictator to hijack the system and shit into everyones cup. But that happens in every system: Hitler got democratically elected, corporations worked their way through US democracy and stole the show. In monarchies the whole idea is based around the queen of ants.
The road to freedom is long and needs constant fighting for. Also Plato was right - simple democracy is shit because to many retards. We should go for democracy plus segregation of votes based on the knowledge of the subject. For example first part of the ballot should be a test for you to solve. Independent (even from govt) public media and education is also a must.
Tyler Ramirez
>Ants don't "think" they react.
I have my doubts about that. I think hive insects like ants and bees basically use "distributed computing" to achieve intelligence no single insect could possibly have on their own. Ants in particular do things that go well beyond just reflex and instinct.
Cooper Wilson
Insects are animals, brainlet.
Luke Campbell
animals are people, but insects aren't, especially to "people" that go to /pol/
James Torres
>high IQ board knows that people are not equal >still advocates equal treatment really gets the neurons firing. Perhaps you should go back to your shithole because education is a spook!
Kevin Fisher
But I go to /pol/. Is this really the extent of Veeky Forums's intelligence?
Thomas Lewis
No. We don't need communism. What we need is a hivemind.
Grayson Campbell
The internet is the debut of the greatest hivemind in the universe
Nicholas Price
>I want to live life like an ant >my life doesn't matter as long as the colony survives miserably
