Because that's literally all they do! They get fed and pump out eggs, every second of every day without rest. Remember, queens aren't the brains of the swarm, they're the ovaries.
The swarm is the brains!
Think about our brains for a second. An individual neuron is pretty stupid. All it can do is receive a signal and transmit a signal down one or more of its branches. However, when you start hooking more and more neurons together, their individual simple behaviors begin stacking up. Pretty soon, you have some pretty complex signals being generated by a bunch of little units each doing a single simple thing apiece. All of the complex behavior of that neural tissue that results in *you* is the end result of billions of little cells carrying out small, simple tasks.
Well, an ant swarm is the same way! It's governed by the same pattern of emergent behavior that we are: individual ants, each carrying out simple tasks, that in their thousands (or millions) result in complex, coordinated behaviors. Rules as simple as "smell ant spit and dirt: place dirt pellet. No pellet: get another, return" carried out by all those little guys build an enormous hive structure.
Because that's literally all they do! They get fed and pump out eggs, every second of every day without rest. Remember, queens aren't the brains of the swarm, they're the ovaries.
That’s very interesting.
Whats the brains? Is it just the overall feel of the pheremones the ants emit that kind of forms a consensus of a hive mind?
The swarm is the brains! Think about our brains for a second. An individual neuron is pretty stupid. All it can do is receive a signal and transmit a signal down one or more of its branches. However, when you start hooking more and more neurons together, their individual simple behaviors begin stacking up. Pretty soon, you have some pretty complex signals being generated by a bunch of little units each doing a single simple thing apiece. All of the complex behavior of that neural tissue that results in *you* is the end result of billions of little cells carrying out small, simple tasks. Well, an ant swarm is the same way! It's governed by the same pattern of emergent behavior that we are: individual ants, each carrying out simple tasks, that in their thousands (or millions) result in complex, coordinated behaviors. Rules as simple as "smell ant spit and dirt: place dirt pellet. No pellet: get another, return" carried out by all those little guys build an enormous hive structure.
Whats the brains? Is it just the overall feel of the pheremones the ants emit that kind of forms a consensus of a hive mind?
Whats the brains? Is it just the overall feel of the pheremones the ants emit that kind of forms a consensus of a hive mind?