Ants, Termites, and Bees, Oh My!

Ants, termites, and bees are arguably among the most successful species on earth. From an evolutionary standpoint they predate Homo sapiens and today it is estimated that they constitute a total biomass that is roughly comparable to that of humans. By most measures of biological success, they have done very well.

Casting of Harvester ant nest

In their book, “The Superorganism”, Bert Hölldobler and Edward O. Wilson argue that these species have survived, evolved, and prospered not as individual creatures, but solely in the context of their collective, colonial existence. Because the individuals among these species cannot survive alone, the authors speculate that the best way to understand their success is to view each colony as a super-organism in which individual behavioral groups act as organs of the greater organism.

The organization of the various representatives of these species varies in complexity, reaching its most complex form in the “eusocial” colonies that feature extreme physiological and behavioral division of labor. Altruistic soldiers and workers sacrifice themselves for the welfare of the colony as a whole. Multiple queens negotiate reproductive rights. Extra queens and reproductive workers refrain from laying eggs unless something happens to the reproductive queen. Some workers forage, others care for the young, and still others do farming and nest maintenance. The welfare of the colony as a whole is the supreme calling of these creatures.

The behavior of individual eusocial insects is actually governed by simple behavioral rules that are genetically programmed. Taken in isolation, these simple behaviors make no sense whatsoever. But when the rules are acted out among many, many, others, there emerges a complexity of combined behavior—a colonial “mind”—that boggles the imagination.

Without blueprints, genetic or otherwise, insect superorganisms produce nests the boggle the imagination. They harvest and cultivate plants. They create nurseries for their eggs and then others for their larvae. The physiological divisions among them are often determined by caregivers who nurture generic larvae in different ways, depending on the needs of the colony. And individuals bred for one job, shift jobs when the colony’s priorities change.

A good way to imagine how this works is to consider an instrumentalist playing the notes from an orchestral score without the other players. The notes played have very little musical meaning. The player stops playing from time to time, as if waiting for something—but what? It is only when the player begins playing with the orchestra as a whole that the interrelationships between all the players playing allows the sublimely elegant and complex music to emerge. Enthralled as we listen, our minds reach out to pinpoint which individuals are responsible for the music’s quality but our habit of knowing deceives us into such nonsense. No individual can make that music. Only the orchestral colony as a whole can do that.

An improvisational jazz ensemble is an even better example because the score played by the group is not written in advance. Instead, a theme is adopted and the players improvise on that theme using some basic rule of musicality—meter, scales, rhythm, chords, etc. The music that emerges from the interactions of the colony constitutes music but it is not the reproduction of some composer’s specification. It emerges as something altogether new!

I think humans are eusocial creatures. As individuals, they  cannot come into existence alone and they cannot survive and prosper alone. Their repertoire of rules is made up from the language they share. Like a jazz ensemble, the interplay of their relentless conversation creates a constantly emerging  music of new knowledge by which they make their way in the world.

Can you hear the music?