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Eusocial behavior does not imply conscious decisions. Ants do not apply their conscious intelligence to choose whether to become a worker drone or soldier dron
by mcherm 5y ago
Eusocial behavior does not imply conscious decisions.
Ants do not apply their conscious intelligence to choose whether to become a worker drone or soldier drone; it is controlled by chemical signals. Bee hives feed royal honey to form a new queen when the colony lacks a queen or is so large it may be able to split... but none of that is "conscious".
Exposure to light, orientation relative to gravity, and such likely ARE the direct causes of the ferns' different growth patterns. But the end effect of a property that says "if you get light from above, grow waxy leaves that help filter water into the clump" is (maybe) that the clump consists of "cooperating" individuals and does better than individual fronds would.
- otabdeveloper4 5y ago> Ants do not apply their conscious intelligence to choose whether to become a worker drone or soldier drone; it is controlled by chemical signals. From what I know of antkeeping, this isn't true and they actually do make a conscious decision. (Based on things like food availability, perceived threat, etc.)
- mcherm 5y agoMost people do not consider ants to be conscious. But, on reflection, I'm not going to disagree with you. I'm not sure that the word "conscious" actually has a clear meaning other than human exceptionalism.
- fredgrott 5y agobe careful with that bad assumption Conscious behavior emerges from a set of cell signaling subsystems borrowed from plants and re-purposed... Those subsystems are known as the nervous system, hormones, neurotransmitters We as of yet in the continuum of emergent behavior yet to have properly deined where conscious lies
- rnhmjoj 5y agoWell, when worker bees communicate[1] the direction and distance of a foraging ground to each other, that seems pretty conscious to me. Saying everything boils down to chemical signals is true but it's probably too reductive. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waggle_dance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waggle_dance