In the ant world, intelligence does not seem to exist at the individual level. By themselves ants are pretty dumb, and don't seem to know what they do or why they do it (listen to E.O. Wilson and Robert Krulwich discuss some of the funny things ants can be made to do if you get a bit creative and perverse).When you have a colony, however, intelligence seems to emerge as a social phenomenon that cannot be understood simply in terms of the properties of the individual members of the population (check out this Emergence documentary to understand a bit more about this phenomenon).
In the video clip below, researchers devise a plan to understand and visualize the size, complexity and structure of an ant colony replete with its own natural air conditioning and ventilation system. Their findings are astonishing...
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