While working in the garden today, I came across something I had seen, but never watched before. We had a pile of garden rubbish and I loaded it into a friend's trailer to take to the tip, and then I laid down a fine gravel base to build the "bin house" upon. They are currently sitting on square concrete pavers, and when I moved them, I came across an ant nest jut below the surface with hundreds, or thousands of eggs, and winged ants taking care of them.
They were startled.
But not for long.
After the initial shock at the sudden burst of sunlight, it took them all of about five seconds to stop panicking and jump into action. And while I wasn't at the planning meeting, or at any of the practice drills, they knew exactly what to do. The winged ants pooled into a couple of groups and then just pretty much stopped to the point I thought they were dying, but they were waiting. The worker ants then systematically took egg after egg into several particular holes with incredible efficiency.
Within maybe three minutes, every single egg had been safely tucked away into the depths of the nest somewhere. And then it was the turn of the winged ants, that as the last of the eggs were being taken away, they started searching for their escape. However, they couldn't get down all of the different holes, only the larger ones, so the worker ants directed, pulled and almost carried them into the right direction, and when they had disappeared down the larger hole, the worker went back for the next.
In less than seven minutes, it was a ghost town.
It was pretty amazing to see that level of coordination and order and just got me thinking about how our own species, with so much intelligence, is also so primitive in ability to work together. Just imagine the mess that would happen if humans were in charge of that operation and how long it would take to get a similar result, and how many arguments and fights would happen along the way.
It would be chaos.
We create so much complication in our lives that doing something this efficiently is almost impossible, and most of the reason comes down to how we feel about it. No matter what these ants felt at the time, they just did what was necessary to do, what they were programmed or taught to do. They had no idea what was going on, just that they had to act together.
I like mechanical efficiencies.
Finding and planning the "easier" way to do physical things is fun, whether it is stacking the dishwasher, filling the cupboards, or moving a metric tonne of gravel from one spot to another. Working out ways to reduce the time or the energy requirements makes the job more like a game. It gives me a chance to develop my problem solving skills, whilst also focusing on what needs to be done, and makes a laborious task an interesting experience. But it isn't about making the job easier and quicker only, it is also about being able to accomplish more with the same resources.
But, watching those ants, I am an amateur.
I worked for five and a half hours continuously, on no more than a morning coffee and a bottle of water. And as I got more than I planned done, I see it as a good day. Even though I am sore.
Taraz
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