r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Natchos09 • 2d ago

Ants making smart maneuver

67.0k Upvotes

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250

u/DontKnowIamBi 2d ago

Source

This is true... Holy shit..

26

u/tsukiii_ 2d ago

Link doesn’t work for me :( what’s it about?

67

u/LordLederhosen 2d ago

I found a working link:

https://www.weizmann.ca/ants-vs-humans-putting-group-smarts-to-the-test/

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u/mbsmith93 2d ago

Fascinating. Scientific evidence that ants get smarter when there's more of them, while humans get dumber. For that specific task anyways.

28

u/breckendusk 2d ago

To be fair, they did tell the humans not to communicate, or to reduce communications to resemble those of ants - ignoring the fact that ants still communicate with pheromones and are used to non-verbal, non-gestural communication whereas humans are not.

That being said, speaking over each other probably would not have been helpful either.

2

u/NubDestroyer 2d ago

It only says in some cases they were told not to communicate and made not able to do so

1

u/breckendusk 2d ago

Yes, but it isn't clear on whether or not that affected the results, which leads me to believe it made a difference that is not being reported on.

1

u/NubDestroyer 2d ago

Yeah it's really weird that it doesn't talk about the difference between the communication and non communication tests. Simply just says they got even worse when not allowed to communicate

1

u/LordLederhosen 2d ago

I almost want to ask Sean Carroll on Bluesky if this is emergence.

Is it?

1

u/Inevitable_gamer01 1d ago

this research seems too stupid to say humans are stupider than ants, humans were banned from all types of communication as well as gestures, and they had to cover their face and eyes, while the ants didn't have any restrictions, and the humans spent much less time on the puzzle as well as less time trying the same things overall, yet ants are smarter???

literally doesn't prove anything other than that when ants are given enough manpower and time will solve a puzzle, eventual but surely

1

u/randomusername11222 2d ago

Tldr, how did they get the ants to move the thing?

9

u/TiredOfUsernames2 2d ago

The ants “were misled into thinking that the heavy load was a juicy edible morsel that they were transporting into their nest.”

Merry Christmas, ya filthy (lazy) animal.

1

u/jawz 2d ago

The load is food and their nest is on the right side

7

u/PicoDeBayou 2d ago

The page won’t load. Does it say what it is they’re carrying?

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u/MSPaintIsBetter 2d ago

They think it's food they're trying to get back to the nest

1

u/PicoDeBayou 2d ago

I’m curious what kind of food they shaped that way.

9

u/MSPaintIsBetter 2d ago

The way it was phrased made it seem like it's not food, they probably just coated plastic in some sugar

3

u/PicoDeBayou 2d ago

That makes sense. Thanks.

2

u/desertbatman 2d ago

Was wondering what the ant motivation was - thanks! (They thought it was food)