The evolution of expendability: Why some ants traded armor for numbers

Ants with lots of workers tend to put less energy into making them armored.

See full article...

 

[Veritas super omens]

The ants go marching two by two,
the little one stops to tie his shoe,
and they all go marching down,
to the ground,
to get outta the rain....

The ants go marching three by three....

 

[Veritas super omens]

Capitalism really is well aligned with nature and biology--no sarcasm tags required.

We should, of course, always beware of the Naturalistic Fallacy. Just because something is "natural" (or "well aligned with Nature and Biology") does not necessarily mean it is good, or that we should wholeheartedly support it.

There's probably an "Inverse Naturalistic Fallacy" too--just because something is "natural" doesn't mean it's bad, either. ("We must overcome our sinful natures to achieve salvation!")

Meta parasitical creatures come to mind, eh?

https://www.science.org/content/article/how-one-parasitic-wasp-becomes-victim-another-parasitic-wasp

 

[Veritas super omens]

Worker bees and worker ants are like cells of a superorganism. They are all clones so no genetic diversity is lost when one clone dies, just as no diversity dies when you slough off skin cells. The superorganism saves resources by optimizing the clones for the environment it exists in. Those resources can then be used to create more genetically distinct offspring. Some of which may have an even more optimized body plan for its worker units.

 

[Veritas super omens]

This article just makes me think: Don't make AI/Robots too smart.
But... sigh, we will.

Expand human expendability!