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Ant-Qaeda

Started by AFK, July 14, 2010, 04:51:27 PM

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AFK

Holy exploding Ants, Batman!  I wonder what that goo would do to your foot. 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38243325/ns/technology_and_science-science/

Quote
Photo shows suicide bomber ant self-detonating
Some ants are terrorists, author says, not hesitating to take out others with them

Terrorism doesn't just exist among humans, according to ecologist Mark Moffett, and he has the photos to prove it.

In his new book " Adventures Among Ants" (University of California Press, 2010), Moffett describes — and shows — how some ants will commit suicide in a very dramatic way while taking others out with them. (See " Poison-Taster Ants Help Save Colonies.")

Moffett told me that in this photo, "the reddish worker cylindricus ant has detonated — rupturing her body to release a toxic yellow glue that kills her and the enemy instantly."

Just before this picture was snapped in Borneo, Moffett had set a trap at the base of a tree colonized by cylindricus ants. The trap was simply some honey that he drizzled around the tree trunk.

He describes what happened next:

"After an hour, weaver ants along with another species of carpenter ant located the bait and started arriving at the cylindricus-occupied tree. One of them started up the trunk, but then came down again. That one would live another day. Another climbed a bit higher and attempted to walk by a cylindricus minor worker. Just as I clicked the shutter there was a splash of yellow, and both ants were immobilized in a sticky, grotesque tableau." (Test your ant smarts: Take this quiz.)

In his book, Moffett describes yet another species of cylindricus ant that includes "living doors." The major worker's head flattens into a disc, he explains, "enabling her to serve as a living door to nests in hollow branches. She allows her nestmates inside only after they identify themselves by tapping the blockading disc with their antennae." (See: " Tiny Insect Brains Solve Big Problems.")

When he tried to grab a minor worker that was climbing the tree trunk, an additional protective measure took place. He said the "ant's leg fell away in my hand, in much the way that a lizard will lose its tail."

Moffett also describes a Brazilian species, Forelius pusillus, that kills entire ant nests at a time.

"Up to eight sacrificial individuals stay outside at night to seal the entrance with sand, kicking the final grains in place until no trace of the hole is visible. Walled off from their sisters, by dawn almost all are dead, for reasons unknown—perhaps the squad consists of the old or sick. The ants in the nest then clear the passage to begin the day's foraging. That night, more victims seal the door."

To understand such behavior, Moffett suggests that we think of an ant colony like a single organism. Cutting off a "minor" part may help to save the colony as a whole. "The larger the colony, the less consequential the casualty," he said. (See: " Insects actively surf the wind.")

"Such extremism in handling risk is an example of how death without reproduction can be of service to queen and colony, and a reminder that anything humans concoct — even suicide missions and terrorism — probably has a parallel in nature."

Could it be that the ever-ballooning human population means more terrorism and warfare are in our future?

No one knows for certain, but as Moffett ominously points out, the bigger a population becomes, the more it can take large-scale risks, "given that losing 10 percent of an army will be more devastating for a society of ten than for one of a million."

Cynicism is a blank check for failure.

Kai

EO Wilson writes extensively about the parallels between insect and human sociobiology in some of his books.

The last statement in the article is probably something that Cain could say yea or nay to.
If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water. --Loren Eisley, The Immense Journey

Her Royal Majesty's Chief of Insect Genitalia Dissection
Grand Visser of the Six Legged Class
Chanticleer of the Holometabola Clade Church, Diptera Parish

AFK

I wonder if the US would/will ever get to the point where it is so afraid of the booming populations of China and India to start training suicide soldiers or creating plans for such. 
Cynicism is a blank check for failure.

Kai

Quote from: RWHN on July 14, 2010, 05:03:32 PM
I wonder if the US would/will ever get to the point where it is so afraid of the booming populations of China and India to start training suicide soldiers or creating plans for such. 

Therein lying the most significant difference between ant and human society. Ants are not in the least bit autonomous. Humans are much more so. You would have to convince people that exploding and killing a bunch of people benefits them. Religion seems to work to a point.
If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water. --Loren Eisley, The Immense Journey

Her Royal Majesty's Chief of Insect Genitalia Dissection
Grand Visser of the Six Legged Class
Chanticleer of the Holometabola Clade Church, Diptera Parish

Elder Iptuous

Quote from: RWHN on July 14, 2010, 05:03:32 PM
I wonder if the US would/will ever get to the point where it is so afraid of the booming populations of China and India to start training suicide soldiers or creating plans for such. 

why would we rely on suicide bombing when we have our unmanned war technology?
it's hard to make much off a dynamite vest, but a drone?  there's money in that...

Cain

Well, suicide bombers are probably more accurate (since they can visually identify the target...something UAVs seem to suck at), and definitely cheaper.  Of course, you cant use suicide belt production to give billions in contracts to political buddies, but there have been unwilling suicide bombers before now (the IRA did this at least once) and I can see covert operatives of...well, any major power doing that at some point or another.

Elder Iptuous

Quote from: Cain on July 14, 2010, 09:19:20 PM
Well, suicide bombers are probably more accurate (since they can visually identify the target...something UAVs seem to suck at), and definitely cheaper. 
hmm... just can't see the tactical advantage.  the UAV's aren't any worse than manned bombers in target identification, from what i've seen, and i don't think there would be any move to abandon them except in favor of the UAVs...  whether the operator gives a shit about the innocent lives lost by bad calls is a different matter altogether.  don't suicide bombers usually bomb symbolic targets or infrastructure without regard to the people in them?

Quote from: Cain on July 14, 2010, 09:19:20 PM
but there have been unwilling suicide bombers before now (the IRA did this at least once) and I can see covert operatives of...well, any major power doing that at some point or another.
really?!
you've gotta fill me in on that!  how does that work?  hold their family hostage, or something?

Pope Lecherous

Quote from: Iptuous on July 15, 2010, 03:50:17 AM
Quote from: Cain on July 14, 2010, 09:19:20 PM
but there have been unwilling suicide bombers before now (the IRA did this at least once) and I can see covert operatives of...well, any major power doing that at some point or another.
really?!
you've gotta fill me in on that!  how does that work?  hold their family hostage, or something?

That and/or take this package/drive this car, to this spot/person, wait for further instructions BOOM
--- War to the knife, knife to the hilt.

Jasper

There was something like that in the movie Hurt Locker.  A dude was locked inside a thingie that contained bombs.

The Johnny

Pardon me while i requote to highlight parts of the discourse:

Quote from: RWHN on July 14, 2010, 04:51:27 PM
Holy exploding Ants, Batman!  I wonder what that goo would do to your foot. 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38243325/ns/technology_and_science-science/

Quote
"Up to eight sacrificial individuals stay outside at night to seal the entrance with sand, kicking the final grains in place until no trace of the hole is visible. Walled off from their sisters, by dawn almost all are dead, for reasons unknown—perhaps the squad consists of the old or sick. The ants in the nest then clear the passage to begin the day's foraging. That night, more victims seal the door."

To understand such behavior, Moffett suggests that we think of an ant colony like a single organism. Cutting off a "minor" part may help to save the colony as a whole. "The larger the colony, the less consequential the casualty," he said. (See: " Insects actively surf the wind.")

"Such extremism in handling risk is an example of how death without reproduction can be of service to queen and colony, and a reminder that anything humans concoct — even suicide missions and terrorism — probably has a parallel in nature."

Idk, maybe im reading too much into it, but, is the target audience of the article just British? American? Both? Seems like Teaparty fuel for the "OMG THE OLD AND THE SICK ARE LEECHES AND SHOULD DIE".
<<My image in some places, is of a monster of some kind who wants to pull a string and manipulate people. Nothing could be further from the truth. People are manipulated; I just want them to be manipulated more effectively.>>

-B.F. Skinner

Cain

Quote from: Iptuous on July 15, 2010, 03:50:17 AM
hmm... just can't see the tactical advantage.  the UAV's aren't any worse than manned bombers in target identification, from what i've seen, and i don't think there would be any move to abandon them except in favor of the UAVs...  whether the operator gives a shit about the innocent lives lost by bad calls is a different matter altogether.  don't suicide bombers usually bomb symbolic targets or infrastructure without regard to the people in them?

They're also used in assassinations, like UAVs, but have a far better accuracy rate.  False positives are far higher by guys looking through CCTV and processing "intelligence" from paid informants than a guy, using his eyes and physically identifying the target.  Especially if there is a team of spotters, as some groups occasionally use, and they're set on killing the target.  The CIA are sloppy, know what they're doing is bullshit and essentially don't give a crap, meaning they care more about making houses go boom than doing any real strategic damage.

Quote
really?!
you've gotta fill me in on that!  how does that work?  hold their family hostage, or something?

Exactly like that.  The man in question did basic maintenence work on a British military base in NI...they said they'd send street gangs around, armed with electric screwdrivers and baseball bats, and make him watch as they raped, mutiliated and killed his wife and children, unless he strapped on a vest and walked into a critical section of the base, while they held the detonator.

frogsicle

Quote from: Joh'Nyx on July 15, 2010, 01:22:35 PM
Idk, maybe im reading too much into it, but, is the target audience of the article just British? American? Both? Seems like Teaparty fuel for the "OMG THE OLD AND THE SICK ARE LEECHES AND SHOULD DIE".

It makes sense for the ants, as such colony species will have many of their number dying on any given night. Worker honey bees for instance (which I know much more about) live about 30 days, meaning that on any given night roughly 3% of a hive of thousands will die of old age, so if a few can continue to be useful that last night, as with the ants, then all the better.

That said, the emphasis of this article and continuing parallels to humans is a bit creepy. I think scrubbing dead skin off or trimming finger nails would have been a much better analogy than killing a few old humans for the benefit of society.
"There are beans in my... beans!!"

Cain

There's a big battle about social security being planned by the GOP should they win the House in 2011, IIRC.

Just saying.