Defeating Boundaries and Becoming a Superorganism

by Marc
April 8th, 2009 at 8:32 AM
Filed under: Other Discursive Dialogue

In a very provocative book review of "The Superorganism: The Beauty, Elegance, and Strangeness of Insect Societies," Tim Flannery discusses why ant are the superior civilization of this planet, one that humans, believe it or not, or catching up to in many regard.

Some interesting facts include that ants garden (planting mushrooms), have established divisions of labor (way before Adam Smith), and strategically create strength from weakness. The definition of a superorganism is "an organism consisting of many organisms; social colony of individuals who, through division of labour, effective communication and self-organization, form a highly connected community."

The point made by reviewer Tim Flannery which prompted me to write this article is based on the fact that fire ants when mistakenly transported from South America to North American completely changed the way they operated:

They gave up founding colonies by the traditional method of sending off flights of virgin queens, and instead began producing many small queens, which spread the colony rather in the way an amoeba spreads, by establishing extensions of the original body. Astonishingly, at the same time the ants ceased to defend colony boundaries against other fire ants. As Hölldobler and Wilson put it, "With territorial boundaries erased, local populations now coalesce into a single sheet of intercompatible ants spread across the inhabited landscape." This remarkable shift was caused by a change in the frequency of a single gene.

Following this observation, Flannery then asserted:

Is it possible, The Superorganism left me wondering, that the invention of the Internet is leading to a similar social evolution of our own species? The proliferation of conflict, much of it prompted by defense of national boundaries, may make us doubt it, but other trends are occurring that give pause for thought. As we strive to avert a global economic disaster or agree on a global treaty to prevent catastrophic climate change, we inevitably build structures that, as with the ants, allow the superorganism to function more efficiently. But of course it's possible that we'll fail to make the grade—that our destructive path will catch up with us before we can make the transition to a seamlessly working superorganism.

I was intrigued by his remark because I do believe the internet is reducing cultural and other types of boundaries. Will a removal of boundaries happen overnight? No, and it could required five hundred or a thousand years. But the point is that we are certainly heading in a new direction. In a previous review of "The Post American World," done by TheGreatEscapeOf2008 lends a similar notion---namely, the world is changing. Speaking for my generation, as one that received an internet-able computer around the age of 12, I know that I gained unique experience with other cultures which my parents hadn't: I was chatting with Swedish girls on mIRC (a chat tool existing prior to AOL) when I should have been in bed.

Regardless of how insignificant those chats were, my perception of cultural and national boundaries was significantly influenced. It is no coincidence that Obama was photographed with "The Post American World" in his hand. I have discussed my take on the book in the TAC article referenced above, and although the book does line up exactly with Tim Flannery's notion of the internet being the gateway to a globalized society, both present ideas of such and plenty of food for thought to those willing to step outside the box and see the world as one peering at an ant civilization might.

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Photographs

Global Diversity (http://ubacademies.ning.com)

References

"The Post American World" (Amazon)
Visit (http://www.amazon.com)

Tim Flannery's review, "The Superior Civilization" (New York Review of Books)
Visit (http://www.nybooks.com)

"The Post American World" (TAC article)
Visit (http://theamericancritic.com)

"The Superorganism: The Beauty, Elegance, and Strangeness of Insect Societies" (Amazon)
Visit (http://www.amazon.com)

"Superorganism" (Wikipedia)
Visit (http://en.wikipedia.org)