(Image: W W Norton)
HUMANS rightly regard the invention of agriculture about 10,000 years ago as one of the crowning achievements of our species. The ants beat us to it by at least 50 million years, however, with their cultivated fungus gardens. Ants are no dummies when it comes to decision-making, either, responding to environmental conditions and building intricate nests with a sophistication that seems uncanny for such tiny, small-brained creatures.
No single ant would ever beat a toad, let alone a human, in a test of wits, of course. The ants’ true genius comes from the “distributed intelligence”…
