"One of the easiest examples of emergent properties to grasp is ant colonies. If one were to continually observe a single ant, the ant would seem to move around with little purpose and accomplish very little. However, when one observes the actions of the colony as a whole, it is clear how the many ants working together are able to accomplish an impressive variety of tasks. Many multiple ants working together can build dams and mounds and transfer large amounts of food from one area to another. The emergent property appears as the result of many ants being organized together. If one ant finds a food source, it secretes substances that act as chemical markers and bring other ants to the same place to break the food source down and return it to the colony. So while an individual ant may only grab a small crumb of food, together the ants form an efficient machine capable of following one another to the food source, disassembling it, and returning it to the colony – a machine/systemcreated to accomplish this task is one example of an emergent property."
The emergence of consciousness from the human brain is a quantum leap in comparison to the emergence of cooperation amongst millions of ants. Can it be said that the ant system emerged from non-rational forces in the same sense that consciousness emerged from non-rational forces? Are millions of single individual ants a reasonable analogy to non-rational forces? Why or why not?
The emergence of consciousness from the human brain is a quantum leap in comparison to the emergence of cooperation amongst millions of ants. Can it be said that the ant system emerged from non-rational forces in the same sense that consciousness emerged from non-rational forces? Are millions of single individual ants a reasonable analogy to non-rational forces? Why or why not?
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