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The city turns into hives
Evolution presents syurprizy
Today, more than half of the population lives in anthills similar places called cities. Does this mean that we are at a turning point in evolution, and ready to become the "social animals", such as bees or ants? It does not seem so unlikely. We talked with the scientists to find out whether the city develop in some people superorganisms.
To understand whether people can form a colony, like bees, or combined into one collective mind, you must first get a working definition of what a personality. But the whole idea of "separate body" much more complicated than it seems. Joan Strassmann, a biologist at the University of Washington, and her colleague David Kueller published a paper in which he stated that define a separate form of life - incredibly hard. The scientists in their work use the term "development" to describe the process of formation of a separate body. They emphasize that even our "individuality" is the result of a social process in which a plurality of organisms united in order to gradually form a multicellular our identity. In a sense, we have hives. Our bodies are made up of millions of cells that are selflessly cooperate with each other, live and die for the colony.
Let's get into the sphere of speculation and thought people might develop into "social animals", forming large colonies. This issue is constantly raised in science fiction: there people at some point face a certain group, all members of which behave as part of the ant or bee colonies, and each of them for the survival of the group is ready to sacrifice everything, including his own life. Is not human development goes in the same direction?
Strassman doubt that human city can already be considered like colonies.
Today, more than half of the population lives in anthills similar places called cities. Does this mean that we are at a turning point in evolution, and ready to become the "social animals", such as bees or ants? It does not seem so unlikely. We talked with the scientists to find out whether the city develop in some people superorganisms.
To understand whether people can form a colony, like bees, or combined into one collective mind, you must first get a working definition of what a personality. But the whole idea of "separate body" much more complicated than it seems. Joan Strassmann, a biologist at the University of Washington, and her colleague David Kueller published a paper in which he stated that define a separate form of life - incredibly hard. The scientists in their work use the term "development" to describe the process of formation of a separate body. They emphasize that even our "individuality" is the result of a social process in which a plurality of organisms united in order to gradually form a multicellular our identity. In a sense, we have hives. Our bodies are made up of millions of cells that are selflessly cooperate with each other, live and die for the colony.
Let's get into the sphere of speculation and thought people might develop into "social animals", forming large colonies. This issue is constantly raised in science fiction: there people at some point face a certain group, all members of which behave as part of the ant or bee colonies, and each of them for the survival of the group is ready to sacrifice everything, including his own life. Is not human development goes in the same direction?
Strassman doubt that human city can already be considered like colonies.
«The main thing that can lead to the highest group of human organization, is the suppression of all conflicts and increasing cooperation. This can happen only when the highest level of interconnectedness. But now the conflict is still very much ».
blockquote> She also pointed out that the best candidates for the formation of interconnected groups are clones. However, people are too far removed from being a genetic copies of each other.
via factroom.ru
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