Condescending or not, I don't agree. Your view is very reductionist. From what I gather, you are saying that ants can be described by the mathematical formulas of their behavior. This is true for just about any phenomena. It can be described and calculated. The fact that creatures as simple as ants, completely helpless on their own, can do such incredible things when in groups is most certainly worthy of awe. How many people, with all of our intelligence, could program homogeneous robots that are able to burrow into the ground and meet two tunnels underground from either end by only exchanging rudimentary signals with each other? Not may, if any people could do this.
My point is that there is more here than simple math, and it does deserve awe. There is collective intelligence. Ants in a group have an understanding of their surroundings in ways that we cannot comprehend. I tend to view them as neurons of a larger brain. Each neuron receives inputs, processes, and gives an output based on a very simple formula. Put a few hundred million of them together, and you get something that math cannot describe: consciousness. Ants individually are very simple creatures, but en masse are greater than the sum of the parts.
I don't think they are the end all be all of evolution nor do I think their methods particularly apply to us, but I think they are worthy of admiration.
> How many people, with all of our intelligence, could program homogeneous robots that are able to burrow into the ground and meet two tunnels underground from either end by only exchanging rudimentary signals with each other?
My point is that there is more here than simple math, and it does deserve awe. There is collective intelligence. Ants in a group have an understanding of their surroundings in ways that we cannot comprehend. I tend to view them as neurons of a larger brain. Each neuron receives inputs, processes, and gives an output based on a very simple formula. Put a few hundred million of them together, and you get something that math cannot describe: consciousness. Ants individually are very simple creatures, but en masse are greater than the sum of the parts.
I don't think they are the end all be all of evolution nor do I think their methods particularly apply to us, but I think they are worthy of admiration.