The Universe Is Full Of Ants

Don't dial you're friendly neighborhood Terminex representative juuuuuust yet. Unless he's armed with liquids potent enough to travel light years and still be effective, I'm not sure he's gonna be very useful. Actually, since the Universe is infinite, his services would be a voyage in futility. I'm not an advocate of genocide anyway, I'm not even suggesting that a dilema exists that requires any kind of solution, especially one that calls for an exterminator. It's not like I titled this entry "The Universe Is Full Of German Cockroaches". I don't think a single person would have read even this far had I done so. Anywho, stop distracting me! I've got stuff to say, disclaimers are infuriating!

Ants are one of the most fascinating creatures on our planet. They are extremely effecient, and highly adaptive social creatures. They have been here for over 120 million years, evolving from a Wasp acestry, and splitting into apx. 12,000 different species. Virtually every location on earth has ant populations on the thrive, and no creature, not even us, has been able to oust them from their habitats. The best we can do is temporarily expel a group of them, hardly making a dent in their overall number. They are the ONLY other creature on earth, besides us, that has domesticated another species for means of attaining nutrition. Honeypot Ants herd plant lice called "aphids" from locations to location, giving them rich plains to graze on, and drink the excess necture that the aphids don't need for sustinance. They even shelter them from the rain! 2% reduced fat aphid milk anyone? Ant colonies can reach numbers up to 20 million, matching levels we see only in the most populated human cities where, interestingly, we also see miss management on grand scales. Some colonies even have air filteration systems that expell carbon-dyoxcide and cool the halls and chambers of their piles. More than anyhing else, the fact that they can manage all of this, while often times being either totally blind or of poor sight, is nothing short of remarkable. Sentiments about the simularities between these insects and humans are applicable, and have been echoed before. It's tough to live in a major metropolis and not feel like living in an ant colony, busing yourself around driven my scents, contributing with you're specialized skills all for the sake of the colony at the demands of the Queen. Now you might say "Wait, we have a president, a man, a Democracy not a Monarchy!", To which I would reply "Just shut it, will you?".

And it's more than just that. More than just how much we resemble these little guys when were walking up and down busy streets, and the nature and structure of our respective societies. Only a tiny minority of the creatures on earth are "social" creatures, most are sole proprietors. There is a blue print prerequisite for animals that have chosen to work towards mutual benefit. There are roles handed out, leaders established, and new generation regeneration tactics enacting for maximum effect, on and on. But only humans and insects can do it on the scales we see, and the ants have been doing it for a helluva lot longer. So is it more than just a coincidence that we happen to subscribe to a lot of the same fundamentals? I mean, are we not doing almost exactly what the ants are doing, but just on a grander scale? Actually, the ants are way more efficeint at it than we are. Every single one of the ants not only knows precisely what they're supposed to do, but they do it with zero hesitation, and no supervision. I doubt we could ever function the same way, considering our astronomical sense of selfishness. But it all seems contrary to the chaotic nature of nature, that this kind of order exists and crosses species lines. It's almost as if there could be no other way.

The Universe is "Infinite" and "Awesome" in the true sense of those terms, beyond our conception... way beyond. There are approxiamately 400 million stars in our galaxy, The Milky Way, and there are 50 to 60 billion other galaxys out there. Lets let that sink in for a moment before we consider the "possibility" that there could also be an infinite number of Universes as well(there are scientific theories that seem to hint at a possible Multiverse)! Consider also the idea of an infinite world as you scale down to atoms, and atoms of atoms, and... There is an equation that in theory attempts to ball park the number of intelligent, communicatable civilizations in the universe. It's called The Drake Equation, and even though it's not provable at the moment (for various reasons, such as the bias of what we know life to be from only what we have here[anthropic bias], to what constitutes as a civilization, on and on), it does raise the possibility and puts the likelyhood, even with the most conservative numbers plugged into the equation, at a high probability. For me it's no question, the Universe is littered with intelligent life.

It's safe to say that, as advanced and as intelligent as we are, we are nowhere close to even our own human potential, let alone beyond. It's even safe to say that there might not be a limit on intelligence itself, considering the infinite status of the cosmos. And even though ants are in some ways more impressive in their societal management than us, there obviously exists a huge gap, evolutionarily speaking, between humans and all other animals for that matter. And since we're insignificant to the ants, I mean our level of existence is incomprehensable to them, then whos to say we are nothing more than an ant colony to some other, more highly evolved, being? Nothing that happens in our world has any effect on the ants, barring what we intentionally do to them what with magnifiying glasses and all. But even then they could never know the extent of our premeditation, or by which design they are being effected by us, to them it's just the way things are. There is a major disconnect there. And this is just two animals on the same planet.

I believe it to be very plausible that we are of ant-like existence to more intelligent, more highly evolved life that is pulsating within space. All this sounds very sci-fi I know, but if theres been one thing thats been more shocking than anything else from the Tech Revolution, it's the metamophisis a host of science fiction ideas have gone through on their way to science fact (and dude let's not forget LET'S NOT FORGET, that virtually every Alien(ET) sketch we see looks like an ant. Ok that's a bit far fetched but, whatever you can't disagree). In the grand sceme of things, humans are totally insignificant. If the entire history of the universe, 13 billions years worth of it, were to be shrunk down to a 24 hour time frame, all of human existence(100,000 + years) would be no longer than 15 minutes. We're pretty advanced sure, but nowhere near cosmic levels. We've only put our toes in the water.

Think about the idea of being observed in the same manner that you observe lesser creatures. Think about the ant farms sold at retailers, about all the fire ants whos city you destroyed when you got tripped up playing soccer as a youth. Now think about all we don't know about our universe, about what kind of manipulations could be the result of more intelligent life. We are already showing signs of "playing God" by advancing the way we have, for the last 100 years more specifically. We are cloning animals, designing genes, transplanting organs, harnessing the powers of atoms, wind, the Sun. We have only begun manipulating our surrounding environment, and we've only been here a blink of an eye's worth of time. If we go on evolving for another 100,000 years at the blistering speeds of late, how many more sci-fi ideas could become sci-fact? The Universe has been around for 13 billion years, and we know that it is possible for intelligent life to evolve in a matter of a few million cause it happened to us, so...
You know when they say "no matter how fast you run, there's always someone faster"? Well, in an infinite system, there have to be things faster than us, and things faster than them as well.

Some Ant Activity Worth Observing:


Waking Life Excerpt: