Eusociallity

Post Reply New Topic

Are NTs, eusocial animals like some bees, termites and naked mole-rats?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusociality


I am reading Ford's book, A field guide to earthlings. I am on page 167, where he writes about socializing.

"Socializing is the synchronization of the belief webs of different people. NTs share their beliefs repeatedly, and adapt to each other, changing their beliefs to conform to each other. The result is that people in the same group have the same knowledge and beliefs, use the same language, and also share the same free-floating symbols."

That sounds like a good description of a "hive-mind," like bees communicating the state of the outside world with their butt-dance or the pheromone controlled activities of termites.

Any thoughts?

I think that sounds more like humans are pack animals.

What does it mean to be a pack animal? I think that is implied in eusociallity, but I think you mean something else.

I think that the constant sharing and adjustment of beliefs and symbols, results in an almost supra-conscious where the individuals don't have to make a lot of decisions.

If you can control the beliefs and symbols,you can control the actions of the group.

"Pack animal" when describing humans is a pejorative term pregnant with a distaste of the subject being discussed. I've never heard the term "eusocial" before so I don't have an opinion about it.

No, not by most definitions I've heard!

Hi, sorry, new here. Have been lurking around lately but wanted to reply to this. Humans are not eusocial by the generally accepted definition of the term. E.O. Wilson defines eusocial in his book Sociobiology as:

While its not literally true, I think that you are pointing to an important truth about how NTs operate. In some ways, they are similar to animals which are truly eulosocial.

The missing trait is sterile?

As you quoted "with more or less sterile individuals engaged in reproduction".

What does that mean? One definition of sterile is "not productive of results, ideas, etc.; fruitless."

I will assume he meant sterile in a reproductive sense, in which case I would ask, do most children exercise their full potential and receive their full benefits in the current cultures? Or are they constrained to devoting most of their time to the benefit of the few?




Angier, Natalie (April 2012). "Edward O. Wilson’s New Take on Human Nature". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2 October 2015. As Wilson sees it, human beings are eusocial apes, and in our brand of extreme togetherness we stand apart—from other living monkeys and apes, and from the many hominids that either preceded or coexisted with us and are now extinct