What if ants became more organized? - General

Unlike the original science fiction concept proposed which often depicts more aggressive Swarm techniques, I display a concept taking it further. Colonial organization so sophisticated, the Colony turns into a Zoon or Zoa. Creatures such as the Hydrozoa and the Portuguese Man' O War appear to be Single Organisms, however we now know that they are a collection of creatures called Zooids which are specialised smaller organisms working together so strongly that they cannot survive independent of the Colony anymore. This behaviour is a link between Colonial organisms and the more complex multi-cellular Organism. These creatures display predatory behaviour, and utilize the ability to sting for defensive or offensive purposes. Go to land, and what creature is capable of evolving towards this kind of sophistication? Ants. They have the largest brain to body ratio and show many behaviours originally thought to be unique to humans, such as farming and slave making. So what if their level of organization developed to a point that they became a single organism. Even further, to survive on land and become a successful super organism, what if through convergent evolution the Colonial Organism developed a humanoid body. That is to become a Colony Man? I have theorized that would such a creature exist, the ants would have to have evolved new abilities such as Silk production, greater developed smell and pheromone production. The only way ants could evolve such an ability would be through millions of years of evolution after this point, or human intervention. Anything to add to this concept? Does this concept hold any realistic ground? If so then how could such a creature be created? Whether in the name of science or otherwise?

Ants? Becoming more organized? Downfall of mankind.

Insects comes from space and one day they will return home to take back what we have claimed. Only possible explanation for this phenomenon.

Dumbest thread of the year, all years [highlight](User was banned for this post ("Why reply" - Craptasket))[/highlight]

That would be an evolutionary step backwards for the ants. If you unearthed an ant colony and just stamped on it four or five times, killing I dunno, say three million ants, if you miss the queen, they'll recover in the space of a month.

What if ants enslave autistic power lifters and use them as some kind of power armour suits.

Ants may have a large brain:body ratio, but their body:my foot ratio isn't looking so good for them.

it makes me happy to know that people think about this kind of stuff. OT: If ants do become more organised, I'm gonna need a bigger tin of this: [t]http://img.dooyoo.co.uk/GB_EN/orig/0/5/4/9/1/549134.jpg[/t]

[QUOTE=Katos;39720100]I have theorized that would such a creature exist, the ants would have to have evolved new abilities such as Silk production, greater developed smell and pheromone production.[/QUOTE] Ants already have those abilities. The larvae of formicine species will produce silk whilst pupating to create a protective cocoon, and ants in the genus [I]Oecophylla[/I] (Weaver ants) use their larvae's silk to bind leaves together and form a nest. Unless you mean silk production in adults, which they don't need. Pheromones are produced by all ants, and they use this to obtain information about each other and where they come from. For example, every queen has a slightly different scent to the next, and the workers will adopt their mother's scent a few hours after eclosing. By using their antennae individuals can find out who is their family and who isn't, which is why you'll see ants examining each other when they meet. It is also why they use the same routes, because foragers leave pheromone trails as they go along in order to provide information. They can also hear ultrasound and use it to communicate (Which is why you can buy ultrasound equipment to repel them), adults ready to emerge from the pupa stage will give such a signal so that they can be helped out and take their first steps. They're not perfect of course, but they're certainly organized.

Well fortunately for that to happen there would have to be some evolutionary driving force to cause that. Some kind of adverse condition would have to exist where the ants could not survive as a stationary colony and would have to move around in a large cloud of an- Wait a second, this sounds familiar. [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_ant[/url] Hives are almost like a super organism anyways, they have specialized roles within the hive, and building, food capture, and even reproduction is limited to an individual. Though colonial cnidarians (at least stationary ones) are all clones of each other, while the queen ant reproduces sexually by storing sperm and using it when it likes. Basically, ants are already really organized.

It came from Red Alert!

we will equip B-52's with napalm and insecticide and bomb them back to retardation.

Worries come and worries go, but when it comes to ant organization... my fear is low.

What if they grew in size?

If ants ever got into massive numbers and swarmed my house, I would use Fireworks to kill them. :v:

[IMG]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3-9L1FwiRsQ/TxWmEvRc8NI/AAAAAAAAJ_w/JThAbntthCE/s1600/them-1954-01-g.jpg[/IMG] This guy right here has the right idea. Grab your hat, your woman, and your .38 and bust those suckas.

If ants became more colonized and formed colonies in the manner of Man 'o Wars, they'd probably end up making gigantic ant-men and stepping on people as revenge for the past 12,000 or so years of human history. artist's interpetation [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/NdxNbgF.png[/IMG] (i gave the ant-man glowing orange eyes because he's evil and evil things have glowing orange eyes)

Ants have some pretty nice asses, I wouldn't mind getting conquered by them.

[QUOTE=TMBGFan;39727958]If ants became more colonized and formed colonies in the manner of Man 'o Wars, they'd probably end up making gigantic ant-men and stepping on people as revenge for the past 12,000 or so years of human history. artist's interpetation [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/NdxNbgF.png[/IMG] (i gave the ant-man glowing orange eyes because he's evil and evil things have glowing orange eyes)[/QUOTE] Great representation of a man made of ants. Possible names: Swarm Man, Colonial Man. If anyone is interested help me out here. [QUOTE=Iago;39728418]Ants have some pretty nice asses, I wouldn't mind getting conquered by them.[/QUOTE] Only on the internet. But I can't help but agree, they have very large asses for something so small.

If they can make bridges I doubt they're far off. [b]ANT BRIDGE[/b] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBTjQMtbViU[/media]

We would throw cordyceps at them and they would die.

[QUOTE]So what if their level of organization developed to a point that they became a single organism.[/QUOTE] They would become geth.

[QUOTE=IrishBandit;39731246]We would throw cordyceps at them and they would die.[/QUOTE] Then we'd be overrun my zombie ant zoa war machines

We need them to stay away from gamma rays so we don't get hulk ants.

Ants already are turbo organized. They have farming, waste management, reproduction management, a certainly well organized army, they know exactly when a new ant is ready for work and when an old ant dies, and not [I]one[/I] and thinks of itself, only the hive and the population at large. They're more efficient than cities in nearly every way. Now if they became intelligent? God help us ALL.

I say we preemptive strike on the ants. Get our your RAID.

[QUOTE=mdeceiver79;39721291]What if ants enslave autistic power lifters and use them as some kind of power armour suits.[/QUOTE] This is one of the greatest things I've ever read.

[IMG]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/512DG2SGCZL.jpg[/IMG] I can see the headlines already. "Angry Ants Advance across mankind"

I for one would welcome our new ant overlords.