3 ms·
I heard ants explained this way once: the little bug is not an ant. The colony is one ant.
by api 11y ago
I heard ants explained this way once: the little bug is not an ant. The colony is one ant.
- bch 11y agoDouglas Hofstadter expounds on this[0] in Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid[1]. [0] http://themindi.blogspot.com/2007/02/chapter-11-prelude-ant-fugue.html http://themindi.blogspot.com/2007/02/chapter-11-prelude-ant-... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del,_Escher,_Bach https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del,_Escher,_Bach
- egypturnash 11y agoI like to abuse plurals to say this: The little bug is one ant. The colony is not "some ants" or "a bunch of ants"; it is an ants. Similarly, you have one bee, and then you have a bees. (Though there are also species of solitary bees that don't form hives, so if you have a bunch of them in the same area then you do indeed have some bees there rather than a bees.)