Natures wonders: ants and other insects farm (Introduction)

by dhw, Friday, May 08, 2020, 11:03 (1658 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: 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.

dhw: A fine piece of convoluted thinking. The quote shows us human beings following “invariable” rules, such as automatically stopping at red traffic lights. But we are intelligent. Ants are "continuously adapting" their behaviour to changing conditions. And you think that makes them automatons!

DAVID: The studies I have quoted show either/or decisions, as we make.

The study you quoted said: “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.” How do you translate the ants’ avoidance of traffic jams by continuous adaptations into “either/or” non-intelligence, while human adherence to invariable rules leads to traffic jams but denotes intelligence?