CHAPTER FIVE
More Is Different
How Bees Find the Best Hive Without a Real Estate Agent
IF YOU WATCH AN ANT try to accomplish something, you’ll be impressed by how inept it is,” says Deborah Gordon, a biologist at Stanford University who studies ant behavior. But she adds quickly, “Ants aren’t smart, ant colonies are.”1 Social insects like ants, bees, and termites are among nature’s most wondrous creatures. Colonies of these seemingly simple species have flourished for tens of millions of years without anyone in charge. The colonies successfully feed, fight, and reproduce, with each insect following simple rules, acting on local information, and remaining clueless about what’s going on in the colony as a whole.
Humans are more hierarchical and ...
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