I think the wrong comparison is being made - humans to ants. The memory in this case doesn't belong to the ant but to the colony, which could be considered an o

I think the wrong comparison is being made - humans to ants. The memory in this case doesn't belong to the ant but to the colony, which could be considered an organism in its own right. Similar to how large companies have "memory" (and behaviour) that outlast the term of employment of individual employees.