Scratch

What is this.

your freedom is an illusion conjured by the hivemind
when you embrace it
you will understand the true power

hivemind wrote:

your freedom is an illusion conjured by the hivemind
when you embrace it
you will understand the true power

maybe i should make some more graphs

I love the fact that alone, an army ant will walk around in circles until it dies of exhaustion, but together they can form bridges over rivers and dismember sleeping deer. Thanks, hivemind!

swarm intelligence boi

luiysia wrote:

By the way, you guys are kind of under the misconception that the queen of an ant colony or beehive is the "ruler" of them and commands the colony/hive. Really, she's just long-living and can lay eggs. While I'm not too certain on ants, with bees, queens don't do anything but lay eggs. She actually doesn't even mate - the drones are just on hand to continue the species (queens mate all at once in a sort of swarm). Basically all they do is lay eggs and the hive handles the rest of the work. The idea of her being the ruler is an outdated concept. The only control she has is what kind of eggs to lay - male or female.

In fact, the idea of a "leader" pretty much defeats the idea of a hivemind. Isn't the point that there isn't a leader?

sorry if this is confusing, I'm tired 

not confusing at all and entirely true
yay facts!
and honestly the term queen in insects and such should be archaic, it can be quite misleading (as we've observed eh)

luiysia wrote:

By the way, you guys are kind of under the misconception that the queen of an ant colony or beehive is the "ruler" of them and commands the colony/hive. Really, she's just long-living and can lay eggs. While I'm not too certain on ants, with bees, queens don't do anything but lay eggs. She actually doesn't even mate - the drones are just on hand to continue the species (queens mate all at once in a sort of swarm). Basically all they do is lay eggs and the hive handles the rest of the work. The idea of her being the ruler is an outdated concept. The only control she has is what kind of eggs to lay - male or female.

In fact, the idea of a "leader" pretty much defeats the idea of a hivemind. Isn't the point that there isn't a leader?

sorry if this is confusing, I'm tired 

That is what a queen does. Sits around and lays eggs.

Bees are an interesting species indeed. The workers are almost all females. They tend to the larvae until they grow enough to become workers themselves. They gather food for the colony and feed the young and the queen, who lays more eggs, and the cycle starts again. Drones don't really have much of a role, if I remember.

Though the queen may not be the supreme "ruler" by commanding and directing the hive, she still holds the most important task of all. The colony's survival is dependent entirely on the queen. If she does not lay eggs, the colony will die out with no successors. That is why they see them as a leader, because she is the sole reason that the hive survives.

I learned a lot of this in my biology elective during our insect unit, and I asked my teacher if social insects do have a collective consciousness. He said, "That's an interesting question, but really I don't know. Maybe they do, it sounds like a practical concept."

hivemind wrote:

luiysia wrote:

I kind of like the term, mostly because virgin queens (ones that haven't mated yet) used to be called princesses and how cute is that?

even male drones?

can a male drone be a virgin queen

777w wrote:

hivemind wrote:

luiysia wrote:

I kind of like the term, mostly because virgin queens (ones that haven't mated yet) used to be called princesses and how cute is that?

even male drones?

can a male drone be a virgin queen

what if all male drones are virgin queens
seems legit

hivemind wrote:

luiysia wrote:

I kind of like the term, mostly because virgin queens (ones that haven't mated yet) used to be called princesses and how cute is that?

even male drones?

No. A virgin queen is generally defined as a female bee that, while fertile, has yet to mate with a drone. Drones (male bees) cannot fulfill the most important of these requirements: being female. By the way, saying "male drones" is redundant because all drones are male, that's just how it is.

hivemind wrote:

777w wrote:

hivemind wrote:

even male drones?

can a male drone be a virgin queen

what if all male drones are virgin queens
seems legit

No. See my previous post.

banana500 wrote:

luiysia wrote:

hivemind wrote:

even male drones?

No. A virgin queen is generally defined as a female bee that, while fertile, has yet to mate with a drone. Drones (male bees) cannot fulfill the most important of these requirements: being female. By the way, saying "male drones" is redundant because all drones are male, that's just how it is.

Drones male. Workers female. Simple as that.

what if its transgender making it a male worker :o

Last edited by 777w (2012-12-29 01:18:49)

777w wrote:

luiysia wrote:

hivemind wrote:

even male drones?

No. A virgin queen is generally defined as a female bee that, while fertile, has yet to mate with a drone. Drones (male bees) cannot fulfill the most important of these requirements: being female. By the way, saying "male drones" is redundant because all drones are male, that's just how it is.

what if its transgender making it a female drone 

No. Bees lack sentience, traditional human gender roles, and, indeed, the concept of gender (as far as we know), and therefore cannot want to be the other gender. Plus, I can't imagine why you would want to be a drone anyway because after mating they die.