5 ms·
Bees dying after stinging really highlights the question of what an organism is to me. It seems similar to routine cell death; the organism (hive) keeps thrivin
by scaredginger 4y ago
Bees dying after stinging really highlights the question of what an organism is to me. It seems similar to routine cell death; the organism (hive) keeps thriving. In the grand scheme of things, the individual doesn't matter
- jstummbillig 4y agoSince the big thing is mostly made of small things, neglecting small things systematically is probably not a good idea.
- scaredginger 4y agoPerhaps I'm oversimplifying, but if this neglect results in independent random events of destruction of these individual small things, it'll average out, so it's fine as long as they can be replaced
- hbarka 4y agoI’m reminded of infantry soldiers
- scaredginger 4y agoSeems very macabre to try and apply the idea to human populations, but I suppose this did more or less happen in WWI on the Western Front...
- hbarka 4y agoThere was a scene in All Quiet On The Western Front where upon the signing of the armistice, an hour or so was left before the effective time of cessation. A brutal German general who was aware of this orders his troops to have one more charge. They were already celebrating the end of the war.
- the_af 4y agoIt's not neglect. A tiny part of the hive dies fending off something that would be harmful to the colony, which is the true reproductive superorganism.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- yamrzou 4y agoThis question is beautifully explored in a video by the same author of the submitted article: Organisms Are Not Made Of Atoms - https://youtu.be/vaJcmWjMNwo https://youtu.be/vaJcmWjMNwo
- h0l0cube 4y agoFrom TFA: > To see this, we can look at our own immune systems. For instance, immune cells inside your body known as neutrophils are just as suicidal as the worker bees. When bacteria invade your body, neutrophils migrate to the site of infection, unleash a whole cocktail of toxins onto the bacteria, and then proceed to die within 1-2 days. In both cases, the suicidal nature of neutrophils and that of worker bees benefit the bigger entity that surrounds them. For worker bees, their death may save the colony from Winnie the Pooh, and the death of Neutrophils may save you from dying from a bacterial infection.
- spiritplumber 4y agoI ATEN'T DEAD
- kyleyeats 4y agoIt's kind of an illusion that organisms reproduce. Populations reproduce. The real thing is the super-organism and the false idea is the organism.
- imtringued 4y agoHow do you define a population? Genes aren't even unique within a single organism but genes are what is passed on, so how can you say that it is the entire population that reproduces?
- kyleyeats 4y agoIt's definitely not the entire population that reproduces. I think a genes-in-cells view would look at biomass of those cells. Lots of those cells aren't directly reproducing, but they are employed in service of the genes within regardless.