It's interesting, if we encouter aliens, they might not have individuals but rather collective singularities like termites: what is “one” termite? Is it one in

It's interesting, if we encouter aliens, they might not have individuals but rather collective singularities like termites: what is “one” termite? Is it one individual termite? Is it one termite with its symbiotic gut microbes, an entity that can eat wood but cannot reproduce on its own? Or is it a colony, a whole living, breathing structure, occupied by a few million related individuals and a gazillion symbionts who collectively constitute “one”? Or consider In the future, we will harness nature’s tiniest life forms – microbes and insects – both their systems of organisation and control, and their genes and chemical capabilities. This fits with our paradoxical desire to have a lighter footprint on the Earth while having greater control over its processes. Haha, the "lighter footprint" is just performative virtue-signaling. What we actually want is more control, it's just an anthropocentric survival instinct that has us batshit hysteria insane for climate change and "lighter" ecological footprints. We don't give a shit about the animals and trees, as a collective, we're just in it for ourselves, while still pretending we're on top, subconsciously acknowledging our interdependence and acting accordingly. This article should be a literary classic. It contains gems like: Male and female find each other and scuttle off to dig a burrow where they will mate. At first the two termites will be alone in their dark hole. Christine Nalepa, Theo Evans and Michael Lenz have written that termite parents bite off the ends of their antennae, which may make them better at raising their young. Antennae give termites lots of sensory information, and biting off the segments toward the ends could reduce that stimulation, making it easier to live in a tiny burrow with a few million children.