r/nextfuckinglevel 4d ago

Ants making smart maneuver

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u/SegelXXX 4d ago edited 3d ago

A colony of ants operates similarly to a brain with each ant acting like a single neuron. They communicate by smell and their language is pheromones. It's incredibly complex. This is a great way to visualize it.

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u/LennyLloyd 4d ago

There's a novel by Adrian Tchaikovsky in which an intelligent race of large spiders uses ant colonies as computers, eventually breeding them to be microscopic in size and capable of being the hardware for a pre-existing artificial intelligence. Seeing this, this feels even more plausible.

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u/ludlology 3d ago

children of time, such a good book

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u/LennyLloyd 3d ago

Yes, I have no idea why I didn't give the name of the novel in my comment. D'oh.

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u/ludlology 3d ago

haha it happens. have you read the sequel?

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u/LennyLloyd 3d ago

Yeah, it was excellent. Quite creepy.