Posted on 12/06/2007 7:42:10 PM PST by linuxster
Deborah M. Gordon, Professor of Biological Sciences at Stanford University, is an authority on ants and order that emerges without control or centralized authority. The conversation begins with what might be called the economics of ant colonies, how they manage to be organized without an organizer, the division of labor and the role of tradeoffs. The discussion then turns to the implications for human societies and the similarities and differences between human and natural orders.
Ants don’t have wants beyond their dire needs.
The standard of living of the average ant hasn’t increased in several million years.
But on the other hand, neither have their taxes. Maybe there is something to be said for it afterall.
An interesting book.
LOL bttt
The Ant
by Ogden Nash
The ant has made himself illustrious
Through constant industry industrious.
So what?
Would you be calm and placid
If you were full of formic acid?
Next thing you know all the teenage ants will just have to have the latest Nintendo. The ants will begin importing cheap aphid labor from outside the colony and before long the ants won’t produce anything of their own. Then they’ll be at the mercy of neighboring colonies producing everything for them and poisoning them in the process.
wow! queen hillary........
Socialism works for ants and bees because within the hive they are all identical clones. There is no competition for survival between members of the same hive because the hive is the genetically unique unit. As long as it survives, then the genetic makeup of all of it's members will be passed to the next generation.
I'm not sure if you could get people to abandon the idea of their own individuality or the importance of their own survival, but I suspect you could do terrible damage in the attempt.
A human being should be able to change a diaper,
plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship.
design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts,
build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders,
give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations,
analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer,
cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.
Specialization is for insects.
Robert Anson Heinlein
Man, you’ve been pessimized:)
“Them”
Go to the ant, thou sluggard;
Consider her ways, and be wise.
Well, Ive been to the ant, and Im buggered
If I think its one up on us guys;
All that rushing about is damn silly,
(And uneconomic, I bet),
Id rather consider the lily,
Its got Solomon beatand no sweat. Stanley J. Sharpless.
You shouldn’t make an assumption about their taxes without knowing about the currency they use.
What happens when Mexican ants start invading?!?!
hahaha I like that quote. it’s been my tag line on the site I help run (in my tagline here).
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Political Entomology, Part II: Liberal Ants and Their Circular Mill
http://onecosmos.blogspot.com/2005/12/political-entomology-part-ii-liberal.html
You’re right. Socialism is a primitive system and can only be moral when it is voluntary and temporary and takes place on a small scale (like the sharing of resources that takes place between family or church members).
See my post here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1935962/posts?page=17#17
If they’re going to compare how ants interact with how people interact, then the valid comparison is to see how one ant colony interacts with another, and that isn’t something you’d want people to emulate.
Proverbs 6:6-8
6 Go to the ant, you sluggard;
consider its ways and be wise!
7 It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler,
8 yet it stores its provisions in summer
and gathers its food at harvest.
.
.
Why the smart money is on Duncan Hunter
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1926032/posts
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