Formicidae (Formicidae), commonly known as ants, are a family of social insects that evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous, no more and no less than approximately 110 to 130 million years ago, unlike of us humans who barely have approximately 2 million, which means that we should learn from that accumulation of experience, experience that has allowed him to adapt and overcome any number of obstacles throughout so many years.
Professor Deborah M. Gordon, a biologist at Stanford University, tells us that "Ants are not smart, but colonies are." No example has a global vision of the system. They do not have policemen, they do not have engineers or architects, they do not know planning and they do not have a director, they do not have leaders or bosses who coordinate their activities. Its spectacular self-organization as a colony springs from the individual herself, from her DNA.
The contributions have been innumerable, as a result of the scientific studies of these small creatures and among them we have what we now know as "Swarm Intelligence" or "Collective Intelligence".
The term Swarm Intelligence was introduced by Gerardo Beni and Jing Wang in 1989 in a work on Robotic Cell Systems. Swarm Intelligence systems are made up of simple agents that interact locally with each other and with the environment. They follow simple rules and without having a centralized control, as a result of their interactions the "emergence" of intelligent global behavior occurs.
Raúl Morales in his article «Ants have their own system to regulate traffic» tells us that in a recent (2004) European research published in the journal Nature, “Ants avoid traffic jams”, Ants use behavioral rules very simple that allow them to prevent and limit traffic jams on the chemical tracks that serve as routes.
“Cuando la densidad demográfica excede determinados niveles, el equilibrio de la convivencia puede romperse y desencadenar conflictos entre individuos que son potencialmente capaces de paralizar la actividad de toda una colonia. Cuando una hormiga obrera descubre una fuente de alimento, la marca con una feromona que actúa como pista química para el resto de la colonia una vez que la hormiga pionera regresa al nido y recluta más individuos para proceder al traslado de la comida. Sin embargo, cuando este sendero más concurrido alcanza un nivel de densidad demográfica elevado, el tráfico sufre una reorganización espontánea y profunda: las hormigas se reparten entre los dos senderos posibles, equilibrando la densidad de los dos. Es decir, el aumento de la densidad de individuos en uno de los dos caminos, que dificulta el paso, es el que provoca la reorganización del tráfico y evita en consecuencia los embotellamientos que retrasan la operación de transporte del alimento.”
On the other hand, Ana Díaz, in her article "The secret life of ants" on the website "New Acropolis" tells us that "The ant is one of the noblest, most spirited, most charitable, most self-sacrificing beings, altruists that exist in the world; And it is in a natural way, without obtaining any merit for their actions. Ants have an extraordinary bag at the entrance of the abdomen, which we could call a social crop. It is a prodigiously elastic wineskin that occupies four-fifths of the abdomen and can be expanded in such a way that it is eight or ten times larger than the normal belly. Said bag explains all the psychology, morals and most of the attitudes of the insect.Those ants whose exclusive mission is to be the city's living food stores remain voluntarily locked up for many days without seeing the light. With their front legs, they grip the roof of the anthill in tight rows, giving it the appearance of a well-ordered cellar, where they go to request regurgitation. Regurgitation is the social act par excellence. From him derive the virtues, coexistence and politics of the anthill. It is an act of giving, of offering, of generous gift, compensated by an ineffable pleasure for Nature. Regurgitation must be for the ant as delicious an act as it can be for us to savor the most exquisite dishes. The ant, when regurgitating, as Augusto Forel notes, with its antennas thrown back, adopts a static attitude,and she visibly experiences more pleasure than the one who feeds on honey. It seems to be evident that Nature has wanted to reward them for this dedication with voluptuousness analogous to those of love. The ant gives, gives without counting. Nothing is her, not even what she has in her body. It is the great austere of the animal kingdom. It is nothing more than a charitable body. A tenacious, ascetic worker, she does not enjoy greater satisfaction than offering to whoever wants to take it the fruit of her work. "He does not enjoy greater satisfaction than offering to whoever wants to take it the fruit of his work. "He does not enjoy greater satisfaction than offering to whoever wants to take it the fruit of his work. "
Technically ants are grouped into a single family, the Formicidae family. From the name laún de ant derives the name of formic acid that is produced by some of the species of the family (ants of the subfamily Formicinae). The Formicidae family groups at least 8 subfamilies, about 350 genera and between 9,000 and 20,000 species.
The nests of many species of ants consist of chambers and galleries dug under stones, logs or in the ground; some species build their ant hills on mounds of earth and plant matter or on decaying tree trunks. Hundreds of thousands of ants can live in an anthill and it physically consists of a perpendicular passageway, with dead-end side galleries, destined for storage in its depths, and as living rooms and garbage dumps near the surface, it has a certain resemblance to large metropolises. human. They are a network of roads that cross each other, forming large "highways" that go from one side to the other. There are numerous rooms within an anthill: the food stores, the regurgitation rooms, the mushroom germination stores,hatcheries and even small exhaust pipes designed to provide interior ventilation.
conclusion
The ants do not know everything, they do not know how the colony works, each of them are assigned certain functions that they carry out in coordinated association with other ants, an assignment that comes from the very birth, they do not know who assigned it, nor is it they worry about it, they only know that they must comply with it, none of them cares about the whole, none of them established the rules and much less, they designed the system.
They do not know the origin, they do not know who wrote them, but every colony is full of norms, guidelines, regularities, and balanced proportions between different activities, such as maintenance, repair, exploration and even mobilization in case of contingencies. The surprising thing is that an ant does not know if there are few or many ants dedicated to foraging for food or rebuilding after a storm, or helping to bring in the corpse of a beetle. Each ant lives in its own little world, they do not wait for instructions, they simply help their sisters in their immediate environment and respond to signals whose origin is unknown.
Really surprising, without hierarchical structure, without laws, without orders or guidelines, without a management model, without a quality model, ignoring the system as such, why does the system work the way it does? How do they achieve the right balance? between efficacy and efficiency (effectiveness)?, it is indisputably a clear reflection of social evolution that we should study, understand and copy.
This reminds me of the Regulated Society of Gramsci who starts from the fact that, if State = political society + civil society, the moment will come when the State element can be considered exhausted as the two members of the equation mature their level of consciousness and refine their interrelationships, to this extent, the increasingly significant elements of the regulated society are affirmed (ethical State or civil society in full consciousness).
In my personal opinion and without fear of being wrong, I believe that why are ants the way they are? Is based on a simple fact, responsibility, respect, trust, community social maturity and conscience; I don't care about the ALL, because I know very well that by fulfilling my responsibilities I will be fulfilling the ALL; EVERYONE expects me, just as I expect EVERYONE; only the ALL feeds me and protects me; only the ALL will allow me to survive.
In short, I am nobody, ALL is ALL.
