Interesting find

[Artimas]

The Human Ant Colony

        A person could become very wise from studying the behavior of ants. Examining their division of labor, mating rituals, food production, distribution of wealth, battles with other ants, and their many different varieties reveals much about our own human nature.
            Some Ant Colonies consist of a few Ants that work together. Some Ant Colonies can have millions of Ants living and working together.
            All Ant Colonies operate successfully as the result of a Division of Labor by Caste System. In most species of Ants the Caste System is a three tiered or four tiered Division of Labor usually made up of Queens, Drones, Workers, and Soldiers. In most Ants this Division of Labor is usually based around the sexes.
            The Queens are the Matriarchal rulers of an Ant Colony. At the beginning of a Queen’s life these female ants are what is known as an Alate Queen. Alate Queens are fertile females that possess a set of wings on their back. When the Alate Queen reaches maturity she leaves her Queen Mother and Colony and travels out into the world. She flies around until she encounters and mates with an acceptable Drone. After mating with the drone she has enough sperm to last the rest of her life. She then builds a nest a gives birth to the first generation of Ants in her very own colony as a Queen Ant.
            The Drones are winged fertile males that have only one job. They are entrusted with the duty to spread the DNA of the colony to other female Alate Queens throughout the world. They are the only males  that are fertilized in an Ant Colony. They are part of what I call the “Royal Family” of the Colony, consisting of the Queen, Alate Queens, and Drones. Like the Queen and Alate Queens the Drones are larger than the other Ants in the Colony. They also have a different look and way about them.
            The Worker Ants are infertile females that make up the bulk of the colonies’ population. These Ants are responsible for the many tasks that are carried on within an Ant Colony. They feed, clean, and defend the Eggs and Larvae. They process and store the food they feed to the rest of the colony. They build the labyrinths of tunnels and chambers for the Ants to live in. They guard and attend the Queen and all the other Royal Ants. They are the working class of the Ant Colony.

Sometimes the Worker Ant Caste is further divided into Major and Minor Worker Ants. In many Ant tribes they have sterile female Soldier Ants that fight for Queen and Colony in battle when they are called to do their duty. They protect the colony from all invaders in the form of Ants, other Insects, and even Human Beings. Soldier Ants are considered Major Worker Ants. Sometimes they also have highly specialized Worker Ants that perform specialized tasks for the Colony. A larvae cleaning Ant would generally be smaller and is considered a Minor Worker Ant.
Ants have incredibly complex social orders with a clear Distribution of Labor. An Ant Colony is controlled by a Royal Bloodline that performs a specific function. In Ant Colonies there is a multi-tiered Caste System that has specialized labor forces. In these Ant Caste Systems it is impossible to overstep these bounds and go outside your caste because the Ants are born into their roles. A Worker Ant cannot become a Queen Ant and a Queen Ant could never become a worker. Only the Drones can fill the position of Drones, they could never be Queens, Soldiers, or Workers. All of these Ants work harmoniously together within the colony to create what I consider one Super-Organism. This Super Organism is the whole body of Ants and the Queen Ant is its brain. Together they act as one.
The Caste Systems of the Ants are very similar to Caste Systems put to use by humans. All throughout the history the civilizations associated with the White Gods have had Caste Systems. Usually the Caste Systems are a four tiered system that divides the labor among the population. The members of the highest class govern the people and members of the lowest class perform manual labor, just like the Ants and Bees. The Caste Systems specialized the labor force by giving monopolies over certain trades to members of particular clans. In many Caste Systems only certain families populated the military or only certain clans could produce shoes. These systems were probably originally designed to utilize the most skills from their people.
The Sumerians had a three tiered Caste System that divided their labor force. “Amelu” the highest Caste was reserved for Kings, Priest and Noble Families. This class was ultimately headed by the King a sole Monarch. Mushkinu was the Middle Class of Sumerian Society. They were business operators and land owners. The third class was the slaves. This class made up the majority of the Sumerian People.
In Egypt they had a Caste System that was basically comprised of Kings, Nobles, and Priests on top. The King held absolute power over all Egyptians. The Upper Class usually wore all white kilts to show off their elite status. The Scribes formed another Social Class that was above the Merchant Class and Below the Upper Class. The Lower Caste was populated by the common folk and the slaves. Most Egyptians would have belonged to the lowest class.
The Ancient Mongolians inherited a four tiered Caste System. Their Caste System was similar to the others found in the world at this time. It had the King and Priests on top and the slaves on bottom. People were treated differently according to the law based on their caste. The Mongols imposed a Caste System in China. It was a four tiered Caste System based on race and color. At the top was the Eurasian Mongolians. Directly under the Mongols was the “Color-Eye” or Semu Caste. These people would have had lighter eyes than the Ethnic Chinese who generally have black eyes. This Caste was mainly made up of Huns, Turks, and Uyghurs. The Han Chinese were the third Caste and they were given power over the Southern Chinese that had darker skin. It seem the more European Blood you had the higher your Caste would be.
In the Aztec and Mayan Empires they had Caste Systems. The Classes were the Nobility, followed by the Priesthood, then the commoners and finally the slaves. The King held the highest position in society. In this system you were born into the Class that you would die in.
In Sparta a kingdom of Ancient Greece they had a four tiered Caste System. At the top were the Spartiates, the rulers and nobles of Sparta. The second class was the Perioeci they were the merchants. Spartiates were the Warriors and they were not allowed to participate in the commerce of the Perioeci. The next class was the Neodamodeis. This class was made up of farmers and freed slaves. At the lowest levels of Spartan were the Helots. The Helots were slaves that were tied to the land. They were of darker skin than the Spartiates and were often foreigners. This system in its beginnings was headed by a King but adopted Democracy among the Spartiates later.
In the Bible we learn that the Hebrews had a Hereditary Caste System. At the top of Hebew Society was the king. They have two hereditary priesthood lines, the Kohens and the Levites. Each one of these priest classes were responsible for certain religious and social functions. In Ancient Israel you were either the King, a Kohen, a Levite or Israel the common people. They also had many slaves with specific rules and regulations of how they were to be governed within society.
In India the Varna Caste System has survived and has been widely studied. This is a four tiered color coded Caste System with a multitude of sub-classes. At the highest level of Hindu Society represented by the color white is the Brahmin Caste. This caste is made up of Scholars, Teachers, and Priests. The Second Caste is called the Kshatriya Caste represented by the color red. It is made up of the King, the Nobles and warriors. The third caste is the Vaishyas represented by the color yellow. This class is made up of merchants and traders. The last class is the Shudras also known as the untouchables represented by the color black. This class is made up of slaves and servants. In the Hindu Varna Caste System it seem the most light skinned people in India are the Bhramins and the Shudras are the darkest people among them. The Bhramins are represented by white and the Shudras represented by black. In this system you inherit your position and can almost never marry outside of it.
The Scythians had a Caste System that was based around three tribes interacting with each other. These tribes were said to have been descended from three brothers named Lipoxais, Arpoxais, and Colaxais who were desceneded from Targitaus son of Jove and Borysthenes. A Scythian legend says that a golden plough, yoke, axe, and a drinking cup fell from the sky in front of the three brothers. The two eldest brothers could not lift the golden treasures but Coloxais the youngest could. His brothers then became servants and the symbols of their casts were represented by the yoke and plough. The descendedants of Colaxais were said to become the Royal Scythian Tribe. Herodotus mentioned the brothers saying;
From Leipoxais sprang the Scythians of the race called Auchatae; from Arpoxais, the middle brother, those known as the Catiari and the Traspians; from Colaxais, the youngest, the Royal Scythians, or Paralatae. All together they are named Scoloti, after one of their kings: the Greeks, however, call them Scythians.
Herodotus describes the Royal Scythian Tribe in this way;
On the opposite side of the Gerrhus is the Royal district, as it is called; here dwell the largest and bravest of the Scythian Tribes, which looks upon all the other tribes in the light of slaves.
Apparently the Scythians had a Caste System that was controlled by a whole tribe of Kings. The Royal Scythians ruled over all the Scythians in a confederacy headed by the Royal Tribe. In Scythia ultimate power resided in the Royal Tribe.
Herodotus said that the Red-Headed and Blue Eyed Royal Scythians were known to guard a certain Golden Cup as a national treasure. The men of this country would wear golden belt buckles in the form of a cup in its likeness. They wore this Golden Cup to symbolize the bloodline of Scythes son of Heracles, father of the royal bloodline of Scythia. It is my belief that the bloodline of Scythes that was represented by a sacred Golden Cup was emblematic of the O Rh- Bloodline.
Julius Caesar described the Celts as having a Caste System of Druids, Equites, and Plebes. The Druids were their priests, teachers, scholars. and judges. The Equites were probably the horse riding warrior class and the plebes were the common folk. Today the ancestors of the Celts mainly have three classes they acknowledge; the upper, middle and lower class. This caste system does not have much rigidity but I imagine it is very uncommon for lower class people to marry into the elite bloodlines.
As you can see the Caste System is replete through the ancient world and still lives on today. Even in countries that do not have official Caste Systems they still basically have an unsaid Caste System. In the USA it seem to be the Politicians at the top then the Bureaucracy, then the peoples who sell things, then the people who buy things. Although many of the Caste Systems in ancient times share a common source of origin the Caste System is basically just human nature. All Ant Colonies and Human Cities need the cooperation and skills of all the inhabitants. If you want to have an ant colony you have to have workers and you have to have rulers. The Queen Ant can’t do it all alone so there becomes a governing class. Most Caste Systems probably stem from those needs.
In humans and Ants you have the Royals or elite families on top that rule over the workers. There are specialized labor forces in both Ants and Humans. Both Ants and Man have dedicated fighting forces whose only job is to defend the population. In Human beings and the Ants they have a large working class that is many times the size of the governing class. Although Ants are insects and men are primates their similarities are striking.
There are many different kinds of Ants throughout the world. There are known to be at least 15,000 species of Ants with many more undiscovered. Just like humans these Ants come in many shades. You can find Ants that are Red, Black, Brown, White, and Yellow just like Humans. These different species of Ants come in many varying shapes and sizes. Many Ants have behaviors and physical characteristics that are not found in other Ant Species and some traits are common to all Ants.
Just like Humans different species of Ants have differing types of diets and ways of getting their food. Some Ants are Herbivores that live off sugars they harvest from plants. Some Ants are carnivores that feed off of protein from insects they hunt. Some species of Ants are known to farm their own Fungus for their food. However, most species of Ants are scavenging Omnivores. They basically eat protein and sugar.
Some Ants live in giant Ant Colonies. An Argentine Ant Colony in Europe stretches almost 4,000 miles. In these giant Ant Colonies the Ants can recognize each other by smell and know not to fight each other. Argentine Ants on three continents have formed a global Ant Colony. Argentine Ants from Spain, Japan and California make up a giant one world super colony of Ants that are allied along family lines. An Ant from Japan and an Ant from Europe will recognize each other by smell and cooperate unlike other Ants would. Scientists say that only Humans parallel this one species of Ants in population domination of the globe.
The Ants all work together in these giant colonies to provide sustenance for all. They eat communally and share resources. All of the Ants in the colony have their position and role within the complex social structures of Ant Society. They communally raise all of the pupae and larvae of the colony. This state of mind would be needed to sustain such large population densities. The Ants come together in the colony because communally they can protect and feed each other. This is an unsaid communist social contract that the Colony Ants live by. Ant Colonies are generally permanent residences of the Ants and their descendants. Ants that live in these colonies rarely travel very far and they always return home to the colony, unless they are trying to make a new colony in another location. Colony Ants are communist.
Many species of Ants make no colony of their own and continuously wander in search of food. A great example would be the Army Ants. The Army Ants are migrating carnivorous Ants that travel in a large “army” and eat nothing but other insects and their eggs. They overwhelm their prey with sheer numbers. Some kinds of Ants live and travel in small hunting packs. It seems these animals are sort of Capitalist Ants. They put up the initial risk of roaming into the world to make a living off the law of the jungle. They take what they can get and they share with their friends. They never stay in one place for long because they are always on the move making new things happen. Some species of Ants are capitalists.
The Migrating and Colonizing Ants also parallel the city dwelling grain eating people and the migrating meat eating people. All of these Ants belong to the same Family of Insects called Fomicidae but there are many different species. There are at least two different species of human beings as well, Rh- and Rh+. Some Ants eat grass and are communist and some eat meat and are opportunistic capitalists. Some humans like the British and related peoples are carnivorous wandering capitalists and some humans are communists that stay to their grain fields like the Chinese. It is within each species nature to get their living the way they do. They have adapted to live in their own way. In early history it seems like much of the clash of civilizations that happened was a result of opportunistic wandering meat eating Caucasians having a dissimilar way of life than the grass eating farmers they encountered on their wanderings. Stories like “the Debate between Cattle and Grain” from Sumer and the story of Cain and Abel from the Bible depict the ancient struggle between the two kinds of eaters in symbolic stories. Perhaps the big issue of communism and capitalism is really just two fundamentally different ways of life of two separate species of man.
No single animal that I can think of reminds me more of the White Gods than what I call the Anunnaki Ants. Anunnaki Ants are also known by the names of Polyergus Ants and Amazon Ants. From here out, I will refer to them as the Anunnaki Ant and propose that should be their name. This particular species of Ant is an aggressive meat eating species of large red Ants. The Anunnaki Ants are slave raiding Master Ants that makes their slaves think they are free. They infiltrate societies from within, release chemicals to dull the masses, murder their competition and slave drive the lucky ones allowed to live.
The Anunnaki Ants have mutated a single trait that allows them to dominate their competition. In the distant past these Ants were basically the same as the Ants that they are overlords of. Over their evolution they have developed very large and sharp scissor like mandibles. These pincers are so strong that it makes these Anunnaki Ants incredibly dangerous to other Ants. These Ants are lethal killing machines. However their gift is also their curse. As a result of having such sharp jaws the Anunnaki Ants are unable to clean and feed their young. If they tried to, they would more than likely kill the pupae every time. This causes them to depend on slave labor of other similar Ants called Formicas that do not have this advantage.
The Anunnaki Ants raid the colonies of Formica Ants and steal their Larvae. They take the Larvae back to their colony and have their slaves raise it as a member of the Anunnaki Ant Colony. These Larvae grow up smelling the mixed smell of the Anunnaki Ants and their own kind so they are less likely to become opposed to their masters, although there are slave rebellions in Anunnaki Ant Colonies. These Slave Ants literally do not know they are slaves. When the Larvae are old enough they become caretakers of the next generation of Slave Ants. The Anunnaki Ants have no parental instincts after so many generations of making their slaves do it to the point where they literally need their slaves. They could not raise their young without them. I’m sure the Anunnaki Ants treat their slaves as a lower species and think of them as cattle though.
However, the greatest trick of the Anunnaki Ants is the way that it subverts whole colonies from the inside. When an Alate Queen matures and leaves the Colony she finds a suitable mate. After successful intercourse the Alate Queen targets a pre-existing Formica Colony for infiltration. The Alate Queen barges through the front door of the Colony with guns blazing. Her powerful mandibles make her a way into the Formica Queen’s Lair and begins to attack the Formica Queen. She licks a certain chemical that seeps from the wounds of the Formica Queen. After Killing the Queen She releases this chemical and it has an incredible result. The Formica Workers become pacified and accept the Queen as one of their own. She then begins her reign as the new Queen.
The Queen has the Formica Slave Ants raise the first generation of Anunnaki Ants as their very own. As more and more Anunnaki Ants are born into the colony, more and more Formica Ants are killed off. Ultimately the only Formica Ants left alive are the ones that get to become their slaves and raise their young. So it is in Mother Nature.
Perhaps the White Gods are just a Parasitic Species like the Anunnaki Ants feeding off the rest of humanity. Perhaps the White Gods are interlopers that use drugs to dumb down the masses in order for them to except their slavery. Perhaps they have intentions on wiping all of humanity out except for the few slaves they will keep around to serve them. Perhaps the analogy fits perfect with the way the White Gods have systematically controlled the world. Perhaps the White Gods are aggressive parasites that feed on the weakness of others, but maybe not. Perhaps there is a method to the madness.
What if humanity was really just one giant Ant Colony? What if the whole Human Race was already one entity or Super-Organism? What if all of humanity was already interconnected in a complex social order and hierarchy? What if the borders and languages are arbitrary? What if in this giant Ant Farm there are Queens, Drones, Workers and Soldiers, only they are Human Beings? Could there be a natural worldwide caste system that is encoded in nature? Yes.
In an Ant Colony it’s very easy to tell the Queens from, the rest of the Ants. The Queen is much larger than a Worker Ant. A Queen has wings on her back and other body parts the Worker Ants do not possess. The Queens abilities make her the Queen by nature. A Worker Ant could never become the Queen because she doesn’t have the proper equipment to function in that position because of her infertile nature. So if we were to look for the Queen Ants and Royal Ants of the Human Ant Colony who would be the first to come to mind? It would probably be the larger ones that seem to be telling all the Worker Humans what to do and guiding their lives. Perhaps they are the tall red headed ones that are always traveling about making things happen.
It has become apparent to me through my research that the O Rh- Bloodline is the Royal Bloodline of all humanity. Judging from the amount of O blood it seems the O bloodline is the oldest because it is most widespread. Just like the Queen has to be there before you can have a colony this bloodline came before the others. Same as Queen Ants this O Rh- group is a minority of the population. 93% of the human population is not O Rh-. The people of this Queen Human Bloodline have extra body parts and abilities which differentiate them from the other humans. They are also much larger and more intelligent than most of humanity. They seem to be the movers and shakers and the Go-Getters. This book details how this bloodline established civilization worldwide and has been the inspiration for most of the world’s major religions. This Bloodline has established and ruled over Universal Religions, Universal Currencies, Universal Languages, Universal Nations, and Universal World Governments. The people of the world look to the authority of their institutions for justice, guidance, and permission. All the Great Kings and Queens have been of this Bloodline for thousands of years. The Queen of England Elizabeth II has the O Rh- Bloodline and so does the majority of her family throughout Europe. This Bloodline is built in a way where it can and does interact with all of the people in the world. Even in the remote regions of Africa and Asia they feel the power of these people. The Channels this power comes through are highly complex social hierarchies that take many forms like religion, brotherhoods, and media. The O Rh- Bloodline is the universal ruling bloodline for all humanity. If this was not true they would not always be the Kings and Queens of the World. Some of the most famous monarchs of this bloodline have actually been Queens who ruled with absolute power. Just like Queen Ants.
In every Ant Colony they have their Drones and it’s the same way with Humans. Usually the Drones are larger Ants compared to the workers just like the Queen Ants are. They also look similar to Queen Ants and possess similar body parts like wings that Worker Ants do not have. I compare the Drones to Rh- Blood Types A Rh- B Rh- and AB Rh-. All of these people look similar to O Rh- Queen Humans and often have the extra body parts (cervical ribs, tails, extra vertebrae, etc…) and abilities (Inventiveness, Voluntary Adrenaline Control, leadership, etc…) that the O Rh-‘s possess. As mentioned before O Rh-has the highest amount of Rh- population with about 7% of the human population being O Rh-. A Rh- has the second highest percentage coming in at around 6% of the population. B Rh- makes up 3% and AB Rh- makes up around .5% of the world’s population. O Rh- is the originator of and oldest Rh- Blood Group because it has the highest population. AB Rh- is newest Blood Group in the world estimated at only 1,500 years old. I believe the natural function of A, B, and AB Rh- is to spread the seed further into the world just like Ant Drones. These Blood Groups shoot tendrils of control into the other Blood Groups where they become the prominent people and the leaders. A great example would be three popular leaders of African Americans Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Barack Obama. All three of these men are AB Rh-‘s and they all were important African American leaders. The Blacks in America count Obama as one of their own even though he is descended from Kings and Queens of England. Ultimately Barack Obama serves the O Rh- Queen Humans. A, B and AB Rh- Blood Groups pioneer the DNA of the Queen Humans into its racial frontiers. By doing this it ultimately extends the power of the Queen Humans. Just like the Ant Drones this is their one and only job according to nature and it’s what they are here for.
Worker Ants are best personified by the Rh+ masses of the world. Just like the Worker Ants in an Ant Colony, Rhesus Positive Humans dominate the demographics. Somewhere around 85% of the World’s population is Rh+. Rh+ Humans are generally smaller and do not possess the same amount of body parts that the Rh- Humans do. Regal Authority is not something anyone would associate with this blood line. They possess a Herd Mentality that enables them to be great followers but they are rarely in positions of World Leadership. These people by and large make up what is called the working class. They make great workers but they rarely have the initiative to invent new things. Just like Ant Colonies the Worker Humans have various workers that specialize in skills. Just like Ants there are Human Workers that are dedicated soldiers and police. It is clear that without the Worker Ants a colony would not be very prosperous or large. It is also clear that the Queen Humans could not get anything accomplished without the help of the Worker Humans. The Worker Ants in turn rely on the law and order that the Queen Humans establish so they can earn what they need to survive.
There is an unsaid Social Contract between Queen Ants and Worker Ants. However, Queen Humans and Worker Humans have written Social Contracts like the Magna Carta that establish the justification for rule by the Queen Humans. It is not rare in these peoples nature to follow without question the people that they know to be in authority. O Rh- aristocrats and Jewish Rabbis have long compared these people to their Cattle. They are seen in this light because of their sheep-like ways. This mentality is only natural and the vast majority of Human Workers would love to remain oblivious to how the Royal Humans decide what is good for the Colony.
From time to time the Worker Ants become dissatisfied with a selfish Queen Ant. In these situations Worker Ants have been known to have rebellions. It is not unheard of for Worker Ants to kill the Queen Ant and replace her with a new one. Sometimes the revolution succeeds and a new Queen Ant spreads the wealth and the Colony becomes successful. In other cases these worker revolutions cause the downfall of the entire Ant Colony. A Queen Ant is not happy when she is required to step aside and she will risk the entire Colony to retain her power. This is very similar to the situation we see in Human Beings. It seems that no Royal Dynasty has lasted through history. In the history of England it seems that the English people get a new Royal Dynasty every few hundred years. The same politics that make Worker Ants rebel against their Queens is probably the same reason Human Workers rebel against their Queen Humans. The French Revolution and the Bolshevik Revolution that killed the Kings and Queens of France and Russia would not have been possible without the support of the working class people. The Queen Humans would risk the entire Colony to protect their power and authority. Nuclear Bombs, Chemical Weapons, and Biological Weapons are self evident proofs of that. I can imagine the toll a revolution against the ruling elite of today would take on the world’s people, economy, and environment. It could easily risk human life on the entire planet. Just like Ants.
Although a comparison between Humans and Ants is not a perfect analogy it seems to be the best one we can find in nature. The similarities between the two are spectacular. I feel a sense of wonder seeing the inner workings of life on Planet Earth and the cruel and kind nature of reality. Ants have Caste Systems, Humans have Caste Systems. Ants have Queen Ants, Humans have Queen Humans. Ants are predominantly Workers, Humans are predominantly Workers. It’s basically a direct comparison that might be a pattern through large amounts of nature. The analogy of the Anunnaki Ants and the White Gods is crazy to think about.
In nature Social Animals look to the leader of the herd. The leader has to lead which includes being willing to protect his or her power from usurpers at all costs. This leader needs faithful subjects to do his bidding and the faithful subjects need bidding to do. It’s good to be the King and it’s also good to be the worker or whatever role you were truly born to be. It takes a certain maturity and humbleness to truly understand these amazing concepts. Who doesn’t want to be the King? Who wants to be a Worker Ant? A wise man will instinctively know his place in life, even if that is not what he greatly aspires to be. It’s hard for one such as myself to understand that O Rh- are the true rulers of mankind and A Rh-‘s like me are not bred to be the Kings and Queens of the World. I greatly desire to become the master of all I see. However, with my recent realization of what I believe to be the true nature of Ants and Humans I can more readily be a servant instead of the master. Is not the Worker Ant just as Noble as a Queen when she is doing what she was born to do? Is not a man that goes to work every day just as important as the people who write his check?
What could a brain achieve without eyes, ears, and a mouth? Is a Human’s brain more important than its hands and feet? Nay a person needs all of his body parts to function. Without hands and feet a head would roll in circles and that would get him nowhere. You also have to nourish and preserve all parts for your body to remain healthy. The same thing is true in the Body of humanity. If there were no Rh+ Worker Humans we would have nothing but Chiefs and no Indians. Without the Rh- Humans we would have no “Colony” or the many other blessings civilization brings to the workers of the world. We are all dependent on each other to sustain our place in the great circle of life. In the end when all things are equal we are just like Ants.

themenoftheserpent.blogspot.com/ … could.html

Some things need to be weeded out, refined, changed, etc. But I had been thinking a while about humans and ants. How humans could create a system similar to a colony, without social classes and all of that monarchy, and perhaps caste stuff of course, but a collective bunch that works towards a better ‘colony’. Ants are all united, humans are all united due to consciousness and fibonacci, etc.

[Artimas]

Could Humans Evolve into a Giant Hive Mind?

It’s a theme that crops up a lot in science fiction. Humans encounter a group where everybody behaves like they’re part of an ant or bee colony: Each individual is prepared to sacrifice everything, including their lives, for the survival of the group. Star Trek’s assimilating aliens, the Borg, are just one of many examples of how we’ve imagined such societies. But could humans actually become colony organisms?

Given that all social insects started out as individuals and evolved to form colonies, it doesn’t seem all that far-fetched — especially when you consider that over half the human population today lives in vast, hive-like warrens known as cities. We talked to scientists to find out what it might take for humans to move from individual organisms to massive superorganisms.

What is an individual?

When you start asking biologists questions about whether humans could form hive minds or colony societies, you immediately realize that the whole idea of an “individual organism” is a lot messier than it seems. Washington University biologist Joan Strassmann, who has published papers on this topic with colleague David Queller, pointed out to me that even when you talk about a tree, it’s hard to say whether you’ve got an individual or not.

“Say it’s an oak from an acorn — that’s one organism,” Strassmann said. “But if it’s an aspen, the tree may not be separate. All the aspens in a grove may well be the same clone all coming up from the same root system with connections. Or those connections may be severed.” She’s referring to the way aspens grow from the same root system, the way many plants and slime molds do. Is your aspen an individual who shares a root system with its neighbors, or are all the trees who share the root system part of one “individual”? And this is just the beginning of the kinds of complexity you run into when trying to define life forms.

So what, exactly, is an organism? There are no hard and fast rules, but Strassmann and Queller call it a “social phenomenon.” What they mean by that is all individuals have evolved from simpler organisms that work cooperatively. Your body is a society of cells that function together to make you walk, clean your blood, and digest your food. And even the cells in your body are actually a collection of organelles, or tiny organs, like the energy-producing mitochondria. Scientists believe mitochondria were once single-celled creatures absorbed by larger cells that eventually became the familiar animal cells we know today, with their nuclei, organelles, and cytoplasm all wrapped up in a nice fatty membrane.

Note that Strassmann and Queller use the term “evolution” to describe the process of becoming an organism. To assess whether humans could evolve to form a superorganism where each human becomes like a cell in a larger social body, we first need to understand how the cooperative bodies known as organisms form at all.

The daughters who don’t leave their mothers

To find out, I called up University of Minnesota biologists Mike Travisano and Will Ratcliff, who have been doing experiments where they managed to turn single-celled yeast into multicellular organisms in just a few months. They did it by placing yeast in a liquid medium where the cells that clumped together fell to the bottom more quickly. They bred these clumpers exclusively, and found that after 60 days — roughly 400 generations of yeast — they had simple multi-cellular organisms.

“Clustering is the first step,” Ratcliff said. But what makes a single celled creature suddenly become a cluster? It’s all about children who refuse to leave the nest. Yeast reproduce by “budding,” forming a new daughter cell attached to the mother cell wall. “Normally when the daughter is mature it makes an enzyme that releases it,” Ratcliff explained. “It looks like what happens is that daughter cell release is inhibited. The mothers remain attached to their daughter cells. That has the effect of making each cluster genetically identical.” Multicellular organisms are, generally, packed with genetically identical cells — that’s the case in your body, where every cell contains exactly the same DNA.

What Ratcliff and Travisano discovered was that eventually these clusters started behaving like individual organisms, with some cells committing suicide in a process called apoptosis. This seemingly grisly process is actually how multicellular organisms typically maintain their integrity. Older cells who aren’t functioning optimally kill themselves off while younger ones continue to divide. Once a cell is willing to accept the death sentence from another in its cluster, you could argue that it is placing the survival of the organism over its own. Now, you have an individual. Ratcliff and Travisano called their multicellular yeast individuals “snowflakes” due to their shapes (see image, with dead cells in red). When these snowflakes got big enough, one would break off from another. Eventually, the researchers found, these yeast were evolving as snowflakes rather than as single-celled organisms.

Through single-celled cooperation, new individual organisms had begun to form. Ratcliff and Travisano are continuing their experiments, trying to figure out whether the yeast snowflakes show other signs of organismality beyond apoptosis. They’re also trying to create multicellular green algae too.

Welcome to the hive mind

Now for the real question: What would inspire a group of multicellular organisms like ants or humans to form a superorganism? In their book The Superorganism, biologists Bert Hölldobler and E.O. Wilson argue that it’s a complex process involving genetic evolution and environmental pressures. Generally a group of insects like bees will move from behaving as individuals to forming colonies when they are storing food (like honey or pollen) that comes from multiple sources. At that point, a colony has a better chance of surviving than an individual.

But the big transition moment from individual to colony — like the yeast snowflake moment — comes when two bees engage in a division of labor. Hölldobler believes the first division of labor is probably when one insect becomes a reproducer and the other takes care of her babies instead of reproducing herself. She sacrifices her ability to reproduce for the greater good of the burgeoning colony. This crude division is between a reproductive caste and a worker caste. In a typical bee colony, you have bees who care for the young, make honey, and forage for food — and that’s just the beginning. Highly complex ant societies have many other castes, including things like farmer castes, garbage collector castes, and major fighter castes who are ants fed special foods to make them grow much larger than other ants in the colony.

What’s truly amazing about these insect societies is that, despite the familiar terminology, they don’t actually have a queen or ruling class. The queen is simply part of the reproductive caste, ensuring that the hive has a lot of genetic similarity (like our multicellular yeast) and continues to produce young. But each worker has evolved what Hölldobler calls an “algorithm” for making decisions about what jobs to do when, based on communicating with other insects and what caste it is currently in (bees, for example, pass through several castes as they age). There is no insect who is a master controller, who understands the totality of what’s happening in the hive.

So colony societies or superorganisms evolve when some individuals give up their reproductive rights and create a division of labor. This scenario is often a response to environmental pressures, such as the need to store food from many sources and protect against many enemies at once. Colonies only survive because they are fitter than individuals in such environments, and there are examples of colony organisms gradually evolving back into individuals when the environment changes.

When humans become a superorganism

Now let’s enter the realm of rank speculation and consider whether humans could evolve into a colony organism. Strassmann and Queller speculate in a paper that human cities could be considered colony-like. But is urban life the first step on the way to forming a superorganism? When I asked Strassmann, she was extremely dubious. “The things that would drive a human group to organismality would be suppression of conflict and an increase in cooperation,” she said. “That could happen with higher relatedness. But right now there’s far too much conflict.” She pointed out that the best kinds of cooperative groups for forming an organism are clones, and humans are far from being genetic clones of each other. Plus, she asserted, “Just look at humans. All that conflict. I wish they were more like organisms.”

Travisano, having witnessed the birth of multicellular yeast in just a few hundred generations, noted that “it’s dangerous to say it’s impossible.” But at the same time, he and Ratcliff felt that the transition from individuals to colony might be easier with “smaller organisms,” at least in the lab. They pointed out that in some ways humans are already colony organisms, if you consider the vast microbial ecosystems that exist in our guts and help us to survive. Ultimately, though, they came up against the same issue Strassmann identified: When organisms make the leap from single cell to multicellular, or from multicellular to colony, they are usually genetically identical or very close.

So maybe you’d need a society of human clones to make the complete transition from individuals to colony. Or maybe, as Hölldobler told Wired’s Brandon Keim in 2007, you’d just need a really good division of labor. He said:

What is common in all these social systems is a division of labor; and once this was evolutionarily rendered, it became incredibly successful. This is true for almost any society: once they reach a high division of labor, they have enormous successes due to division of labor. And the second thing, once a society becomes almost like an organism, it becomes very tightly interconnected.
But even Hölldobler admitted that humans experience too much conflict to form colonies — a behavior he calls maladaptive:

15,000 years ago we were hunter gatherers. We showed group cohesiveness and discrimination against other groups. It was adaptive. It was quite understandable that we evolved traits of group recognition, and making sure we recognized foreigners. This is my conviction that this is probably the early basis for our unfortunate xenophobic behavior that is still in us. It’s a behavior that is now terribly maladaptive.
Does that mean our xenophobia is what keeps us individuated? Maybe. After all, we have many of the prerequisites required to become a colony organism. We have a highly complex division of labor, and we gather and store food from a variety of sources. We are even very close to each other genetically — as population biologists have pointed out, humans are very inbred.

So what prevents us from crossing the threshold into forming superorganisms? Maybe we just haven’t evolved beyond our primitive group differences enough. Or maybe part of what makes us humans, at least right now, is constantly navigating between colony consciousness and conflict. Either way, we’re not likely to merge into hive minds any time soon.

Sources:

Beyond society: The evolution of organismality, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B

Experimental evolution of multicellularity, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science

Bert Hölldobler and E.O. Wilson, The Superorganism: The Beauty, Elegance, and Strangeness of Insect Societies (New York and London: Norton, 2009)

Images:

Beehive by Lehrer via Shutterstock

Yeast snowflake via Will Ratcliff

Ant queens and workers by Alex Wild

Rioters by 1000Words via Shutterstock

io9.com/5891143/could-humans-evo … -hive-mind

[Only_Humean]

Do you have a thesis to present for discussion?

[Artimas]

@Only_Humean

Do you have a thesis to present for discussion?

Well I was posting it to get help building on it, refining it and such to make it more fair, less primitive, modernized and human evolved. If anyone is interested in that.

Well I was wondering if people could create a society that is similar to ants, not with a monarchy or perhaps not a Caste system, but one where people could work for the betterment of their society/colony.

I don’t think the social classes and such would really matter. People would still have jobs, such as what we have today. We would have a military, not to fight other humans, but just in case anything ever happens to where arms need to be used, perhaps a corrupt organization, aliens, chaos prevention, etc.

A society where people can work for the betterment of the colony, instead of themselves and their lust for more power, wealth, necessities, etc. Ants work for the colony, this is how it grows to get big, or spread all around, how they become so complex with their system.

What does anyone else think?

[Only_Humean]

@Artimas

A society where people can work for the betterment of the colony, instead of themselves and their lust for more power, wealth, necessities, etc. Ants work for the colony, this is how it grows to get big, or spread all around, how they become so complex with their system.

What does anyone else think?

What’s the good of the colony? Ants don’t think about this, they just reproduce, the colony grows and grows, that’s it. The ants themselves don’t have a better or worse life as a result. Is the human good to maximise population until we deplete our resources?

Is it a complex society? A safe society? An equal society? A powerful society? Why should intelligent, rational people subsume themselves to the good of ‘the colony’?

[Orbie]

Isn’t it a foregone conclusion that with the growing of populations, leveling into larger and unfied colonies that it is inavoidable that more uniformity will reduce an over complex and unmanagable society? That a tehchnocracy must replace it, and that is the price to be paid for it?

[Artimas]

@Only_Humean

@Artimas

A society where people can work for the betterment of the colony, instead of themselves and their lust for more power, wealth, necessities, etc. Ants work for the colony, this is how it grows to get big, or spread all around, how they become so complex with their system.

What does anyone else think?

What’s the good of the colony? Ants don’t think about this, they just reproduce, the colony grows and grows, that’s it. The ants themselves don’t have a better or worse life as a result. Is the human good to maximise population until we deplete our resources?

Is it a complex society? A safe society? An equal society? A powerful society? Why should intelligent, rational people subsume themselves to the good of ‘the colony’?

How can we say ants don’t think about this. Ants will overthrow their queen of she is not fit, do they think about that? Well don’t they have to think about that? to rebel? They do a lot of interesting things, some ants even enslave other ants. It isn’t so simple as to just reproduction. They also send off queen ants, and I believe drones but am not sure to reproduce with another drone/queen from other colonies to build a new colony. They have working classes for their system. Well if they rebel and the rebellion fails it can cost them their entire colony, if it succeeds they may replace the queen with a new one.

Complex, safe, equal and powerful. Perhaps a wise society. Monkey see, monkey do, it all starts with a leader that is the actual wise man instead of the fool.

Geniuses/wise men already do, so why shouldn’t intelligent beings? For the advancement of mankind without delay.

[Artimas]

@Orb

Isn’t it a foregone conclusion that with the growing of populations, leveling into larger and unfied colonies that it is inavoidable that more uniformity will reduce an over complex and unmanagable society? That a tehchnocracy must replace it, and that is the price to be paid for it?

Ants create create other colonies as well, by sending off a drone ant, I think it is a drone ant not for sure. But they also send off a queen to reproduce with with other colonies, it carries genetics from the main colony and creates a new colony in whole.

Similarly, we should be colonizing other moons, planets, etc. We need to advance, in order to advance we need a viable productive society that sets real goals. Instead of a society where people live for the self, that who alone is not really that important.

[phyllo]

What happens if I don’t want to be in a class system?

What happens if I don’t want to live for society? What if I want to live for myself?

[Artimas]

@phyllo

What happens if I don’t want to be in a class system?

What happens if I don’t want to live for society? What if I want to live for myself?

Living for oneself is the reason we’re here… You’re pretty much asking. “What if I want to live in a garbage society like this, fueled by greed, fear and hate?”

You aren’t living for simply society, more so living for the universe. Living for it by doing what people and ‘life’ are here to do. I said not a class system or monarchy.

[phyllo]

Living for oneself is the reason we’re here… You’re pretty much asking. “What if I want to live in a garbage society like this, fueled by greed, fear and hate?”

Okay. What if I want to live in a garbage society? What happens to me in your ideal society?

You aren’t living for simply society, more so living for the universe.

Okay. What if I don’t want to live for the universe? What happens?

[Artimas]

@phyllo

Living for oneself is the reason we’re here… You’re pretty much asking. “What if I want to live in a garbage society like this, fueled by greed, fear and hate?”

Okay. What if I want to live in a garbage society? What happens to me in your ideal society?

You aren’t living for simply society, more so living for the universe.

Okay. What if I don’t want to live for the universe? What happens?

You live for the universe whether you like it or not, you are it. Why not be the fullest instead of the smallest?

Why would anyone want to live in a garbage society? The rich enjoy it while a lot of others suffer at the bottom. You enjoy watching suffering, poverty, inequality, etc?

or perhaps you argue just to argue. Talk because you have to say something, instead of having something to say. Like Plato said.

[phyllo]

You live for the universe whether you like it or not, you are it.

I don’t have to do anything. Excellent.

Why would anyone want to live in a garbage society? The rich enjoy it while a lot of others suffer at the bottom. You enjoy watching suffering, poverty, inequality, etc?

Maybe I don’t think your utopia will work and I want to set up an alternate society where people use money.

Seems perfectly reasonable.

[Artimas]

@phyllo

You live for the universe whether you like it or not, you are it.

I don’t have to do anything. Excellent.

Why would anyone want to live in a garbage society? The rich enjoy it while a lot of others suffer at the bottom. You enjoy watching suffering, poverty, inequality, etc?

Maybe I don’t think your utopia will work and I want to set up an alternate society where people use money.

Seems perfectly reasonable.

Well it’s not a utopia. So no point associating it with such… That’s what all of the people like you say “Oh, if it’s possible of working better than this garbage society, it’s a utopia!” Sorry, but change is better than expecting new to derive out of the same. Already has been proven in history, and it’s proven right now that your society doesn’t work well. Nothing reasonable about it. There is no such thing as a utopia.

You don’t have to do anything, you’re the universe experiencing through awareness. The concept really that lost on you?

[phyllo]

Well it’s not a utopia. So no point associating it with such… That’s what all of the people like you say “Oh, if it’s possible of working better than this garbage society, it’s a utopia!” Sorry, but change is better than expecting new to derive out of the same. Already has been proven in history, and it’s proven right now that your society doesn’t work well. Nothing reasonable about it. There is no such thing as a utopia.

Okay, not utopia.
In this proposed society of yours… can I opt out and form my own society and use money for transactions?

You don’t have to do anything, you’re the universe experiencing through awareness. The concept really that lost on you?

The concept seems to have no practical bearing on my life. Therefore, it is reasonable to ignore it.

[MechanicalMonster]

What a tragic insanity, that this is how otherwise capable minds choose to spend their days.

The curve upward to truth is an exponential one - unless you are willing to put in increasingly greater amounts of time and effort you will merely collapse into whatever convenient brand of death happens to satisfy your individual psychological topography.

[James_S_Saint]

@Artimas

@Orb

Isn’t it a foregone conclusion that with the growing of populations, leveling into larger and unfied colonies that it is inavoidable that more uniformity will reduce an over complex and unmanagable society? That a tehchnocracy must replace it, and that is the price to be paid for it?

Ants create create other colonies as well, by sending off a drone ant, I think it is a drone ant not for sure. But they also send off a queen to reproduce with with other colonies, it carries genetics from the main colony and creates a new colony in whole.

Similarly, we should be colonizing other moons, planets, etc. We need to advance, in order to advance we need a viable productive society that sets real goals. Instead of a society where people live for the self, that who alone is not really that important.

All of this is exactly what socialists have been promoting and programming into society for about 50 years now; “The ant and bee colonies are perfect survivors” - FOR THE COLONY QUEEN!!

… and that is largely why I refer to so many people of today as “ants”, “drones”, or “workers”. They are literally programmed for a colony function, including phagocytes (aka “faggots”).

If you don’t like today, then you don’t like the plan you’re promoting.

[zinnat]

@Artimas

In India the Varna Caste System has survived and has been widely studied. This is a four tiered color coded Caste System with a multitude of sub-classes. At the highest level of Hindu Society represented by the color white is the Brahmin Caste. This caste is made up of Scholars, Teachers, and Priests. The Second Caste is called the Kshatriya Caste represented by the color red. It is made up of the King, the Nobles and warriors. The third caste is the Vaishyas represented by the color yellow. This class is made up of merchants and traders. The last class is the Shudras also known as the untouchables represented by the color black. This class is made up of slaves and servants. In the Hindu Varna Caste System it seem the most light skinned people in India are the Bhramins and the Shudras are the darkest people among them. The Bhramins are represented by white and the Shudras represented by black. In this system you inherit your position and can almost never marry outside of it.

It is true that there was/is caste system in the Indian subcontimnent but it is/was not related to skin colour by any streach of imagination. I do not know who put this thesis forth, but he got it all wrong or altering the facts to push his own agenda.

By and large, all North Indians are fair (less than Europeans), Cental Indians are wheatish and South Indians are black (but far less than Africans), irresprective of their casts.

Secondly, there were/are no red or yellow castes whatsover ever existed throughout the history of India.

All South Indian Brahams were/are blacks and all North Indian Shudras were/are fair.

Anyone who has any doubt, can verify that physically in the daylight by his own eyes even now.

with love,
sanjay

[James_S_Saint]

He wasn’t talking about skin color.

[zinnat]

@James S Saint

He wasn’t talking about skin color.

@zinnat13

Artimas wrote:
In the Hindu Varna Caste System it seem the most light skinned people in India are the Bhramins and the Shudras are the darkest people among them. The Bhramins are represented by white and the Shudras represented by black. In this system you inherit your position and can almost never marry outside of it.

with love,
sanjay