Humans VS ants

I finished reading Deborah D. Gordons book on ant behaviour [5] and came across some curious/funny similarities between ant and human behaviour. Sit back and enjoy. :)

Choosing a destination

Ants: “If the density of the ants at the new site is high enough, the scouts will go back to the old nest and recruit the rest of the colony to move. The scouts merely asses the numbers, not the satisfaction of the ants in the new site, but because satisfaction is linked to the probability that an ant will stay in a new site, numbers of ants in the new site are correlated with its quality”

Humans: Isn't that kind of how it works for choosing a vacation destinations as well? The rule of thumb seems to be the same: if a lot of people are enjoying themselves over there it must be a nice place to visit.

Dare to explore

Ants: “Another example of positive feedback is that foragers are stimulated to leave the nest when successful foragers come in.”

Humans: Only few brave ones dare to leave for the unknown. Once it has been proven however that the journey is worth the while others follow in masses.

What you see is what you become

Ants: “An ant that is not performing midden work is more likely to switch to do midden work then its rate of contact with midden workers is high”

Humans: What you have seen people in your near environment doing while growing up will influence what you consider possible and what you will become.

Unemployment and work-force reserves

Ants: “As an ant colony grows, if all the new ants are not foraging, what are they doing? Surprisingly, the answer seems to be that they are doing nothing. As a colony grows larger, the proportion of reserves grows.

Humans: It looks as if every time you have a society that uses collaboration to create food reserves (i.e. not every single individual needs to produce his/her own food) unemployment seems to be a natural consequence. At the same time this enables the members that are not occupied with food production/foraging to do other tasks (nest maintenance). Ant and human societies seem to be alike from this point of view.

Task fidelity and specialisation rates

Ants: “In an older (and larger) colony, ants tend to perform the same task from one day to the next unless there is a drastic change in the environment”

Humans: When societies are small everyone needs to be able to perform almost all tasks necessary for survival. As our societies grew division of labor increased as well. If you (say) design clothes for a living today, you don't need to know how to build a house or milk a cow. It suffices that you know how to make nice clothes.

Youth obsessed with their appearance

Ants: “younger workers spent more time grooming themselves”

Humans: I sort of suspect that this is the same for humans...

Xenophobic ants

Ants: You got them in all varieties. Super-hostile ants and super-peaceful ants. Ants that “hate” their neighbors and ants that more worried about ants that come from far-far away.

Humans: Alike...

Sabotaging the competitor

Ants: There are a lot of ant-plant symbiotic systems. In those cases the ants live in the plant and feed from it. In return the ants take care of the plant: they protect if from dangerous bugs and go as far as to sabotage and kill neighbouring plants! The Myrmelachista schumanni ants climb onto neighboring plants, chew a hole in it and fill it with formic acid. As a result the plant dies...

Human: …

A bunch of kids or a career?

Ants: “In fact many ant queens appear not to do much besides laying eggs. But workers do a great many things. […] A species in which some individuals reproduce and others do not is called 'eusocial', truly social.”

Human: Are we eusocial as well?

IKEA: Design your life.

Can't really control your life? Feel you don't have a choice? Don't know what to do with yourself? Feel like there are not enough outlets for you to express yourself?

Well, have you ever considered spending all your energy on creating yourself the perfect interior then? Cause that is what IKEA's advertisement suggests you should do:

"IKEA. Design your life." (quote from radio)

Because this is what our pathetic consumeristic existance has come to:

designing your interior = designing your life

So cheer up, when there is nothing else left to do to give yourself a sense of place, belonging and achievement, you can always re-do your interior!

PS: If you are as frustrated as me, here is another cheaper alterative for you: start a blog! :P

Praise me for I know how to consume

I have finally awaken and started perceiving a most peculiar behaviour... Every time someone in my extended family buys a new car/laptop (or any other noticeable purchase) they feel the urge to ' demostrate' their new purchase and (the rest of the family) is as curious as to make sure to pay a visit soon after the purchase. Thus the family gathers and everyone flocks around to observe the newly-born (oops, I meant bought) family member. (oh, and in case you couldn't make it to the little 'demonstration family reunion', don't you worry: you will promptly be receiving an email with photos attached).
After the demonstration the incessant praising starts: "Oh yes, great car" , " Ow, very nice indeed" ... Sheepishly I follow along (for if you don't you risk being considered unfriendly and snobbish), force myself to look interested and finally, trying hard to fake enthusiasm, I utter "Indeed, nice car". When actually I couldn't CARE LESS. My interest for cars/laptops (or whatever) goes as far as their functional purpose goes. "Can you drive in the car you just bought?". If the answer is ' yes' conversation has finished as far as I am concerned.

Why this urge to show? Why this craving for approval? Do they need to hear others telling them they made a good choice? If that is what they want I will give it right now:
Congratulations you've been convinced by good marketing that you need yet another product, and this one in specific. Congratulations also for skillfully having chosen that which has already been mass-produced for you.

18th century robots

Robots turning eeringly life-like... Androids replacing humans... It sounds we are on the verge of a whole new era in human history. Interestingly however we are not the first humans to think so.

When today we think that computers and robots might take over the world, our 16th century ancestors thought the clock will! The clock, with its moving hands and intricate mechanics had deeply impressed people. Descartes (a famous philosopher) actually envisioned that a clock could one day perhaps even move a person's legs.

The 18th century had its own little robotics-revolution. A lot of 'automata' were build at that time. These 'automata' were in a sense mechanical toys but the extend to which they were life-like really enchanted people. Needless to say, the first of these automata were constructed as gifts for Kings, Queens and Noblemen. I will list a few of these impressive creations below.

There is Jacques Vaucason's duck. A 'robot' duck that can sit, stand eat and... poo!

Then there is "La Joueuse de Tympanon". Notice how in this video she is even moving her head and eyes! Creepy!

And Henri Maillardet's "writer".

You can also check out this trailer. You can see various automata as well as Vaucanson's duck in action!

So I think by now it should be clear: We are not the first to wonder: "what if one day these robots start having a mind of their own?"...

Animal instincts & ingenious anti-rape mechanisms

Animals... Wild.. Uncontrollable... Following their instincts...

Now, would you think an animal can feel 'raped'...? To be very honest I sort of thought animals would like anything that feels good (unless I guess it doesn't).

But apparently they don't.

To be more specific, in some duck species female ducks have developed an

elaborate 'anti-rape' mechanism. It seems that they are often approached by aggressive (undesired) male ducks with malicious intentions and finding no escape... :(

So, (it seems) they have developed certain sacks/dead ends in their vagina... Once the 'aggressor' is led into those their sperm is practically wasted.

Who would have thought...!

If you want to know more check out this article.

“Despite the fact that most water fowl form monogamous pairs, forced copulations by other males — the avian equivalent of rape — are common in many water fowl, [...]. The length of the phallus of a species is strongly correlated with the frequency of forced copulations.” - P. Brennan

I leave the conclusions up to you.

The bright side of the Dark Ages

The Inquisition, burning books, scientist and philosophers dying slow and painful deaths because they held a belief opposed by the 'Church', suppressed urges and emotions... A creepy image of the Dark Ages...

I started reading this book on the Middle Ages, "Liebe und Sex im Mittelalter" (love and sex in medieval times) by Alexander Ballhaus and I am surprised to find that those Dark Ages might have a bright side too. (and no, I don't mean the Hollywood 'princesses and knights' bright side!)

Even though the 'Church' (and thus to an extend Christianity) have been the driving force behind that terrifying Inquisistion and other horrible things, Christianity has also brought about important changes that distinguish the ancient from the modern world.

For one thing Christianity, with its claim that all humans are equal in the eyes of God, laid the foundation for the later abolishment of slavery. (note that in the Roman Empire slaves were regarded and treated as animals; also note how Christianity was initially adopted by slaves and how they were persecuted by the Roman Empire)

Beside this, it also brought about a shift in people's minds about the position of women.

Clement of Alexandria reported: "Christians want women to be appreciated on the basis of the purity of their behavior and not their beauty; furthermore they don't want men regarding women as subservient objects, because nature gave us marriage, just as it gave us food, which we can use but not abuse." [4]

Even though it might have taken a long time until women and men became equals and slavery was abolished, it seems that the Dark Ages have been a breeding ground for this. A first step in a long-long journey...

Homosexual necrophiliac duck

Yes, you understood correctly. Homosexuality and necrophilia (finding the dead sexually attractive) have been observed in ducks (both at the same time, an all-in-one bingo) just outside the Natural History Museum of Rotterdam.

How did this happen? Well, one fine day a male duck (the 'victim-duck') flew against the museum's huge window and dropped dead (just like many other birds do apparently). Then another male duck arrived that started ahm "copulating" with the dead duck... Kees Moeliker who worked at the museum happened to pass, video-taped the whole event and described it extensively in a paper (he later even won a Ig Nobel Prize for this).

A funny detail is that when Kees tried to collect the carcass he was faced by an aggressive attack from the 'molester duck' who was defending his 'prey'...!

Well, isn't nature full of surprises?!