Natures wonders: ants and other insects farm (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, May 06, 2020, 16:37 (1660 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: animals and plants have their own forms of cognition, memory, communication, information-processing, decision-making etc. – all elements of what we call intelligence.

dhw: Do you agree that these are attributes that denote intelligence?

Same old discussion: below we are looking at the ants from the outside. What looks like innate intelligence can be simply following rules or in all animals and plants simple yes/no responses to automatic sensors triggering standard responses

dhw: [...] would you say that ants have a certain degree of autonomous intelligence?

DAVID: To the degree they make either/or choices, yes.

dhw: I’m amazed that you consider the invention of farming techniques, of rafting, of the many strategies used to combat enemies, and indeed of building whole cities to be either/or choices. But at least we’ve made a start. Ants apparently do have a degree of autonomous intelligence since they can choose between two options. Otherwise, though, all the above examples of intelligence are apparently the work of automatons to whom a hands-on God gives courses in or implants instructions for farming, rafting, soldiering and architecture. Have I got that right?

dhw: Please tell me if the above is an accurate description of your beliefs.

DAVID: See previous entry as each ant does his own thing:
Ant intelligence; colony traffic jam controls (Introduction)
by David Turell @, Tuesday, October 22, 2019, 20:51

dhw: I’m not very proficient with the technology of finding threads. There are 59 pages of them! I gave up after scrolling through the first 10. Sorry. The second one was easy, though:

Yes indeed. Now perhaps you’ll comment on my response to your previous post.

Here is the ant jam story:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191022080738.htm

Ants, protected by their exoskeleton, are not afraid of collisions and can accelerate where we humans prefer to slow down. In addition, movements in ant colonies share a common goal: foraging, which is carried out effectively regardless of density. Ants seem to avoid the traffic jam trap by continuously adapting their traffic rules to suit local crowding, whereas car traffic follows invariable rules such as stopping at a red light regardless of traffic."

Comment: Human traffic jams are the result of individual driver's decisions. The ants make group decisions as each individual makes the same move in coordination. I suspect a learned instinctual behavior based on standardized individual responses to stimuli, as shown in the bridge building study.

I have no reason to change the comment. The reason you had trouble finding this is Neil's search mechanism is not coded well and my last entry yesterday got in the way of your search and mine today until I searched for ant traffic jams and it reappeared. I thought you had special techniques Neil gave you. Guess not.