Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Ustwo
Worker social insects do not reproduce, only the queens/drones. The workers sacrifice their own reproduction, selves, for the good of their mother. This is a mathematically stable relationship in genetic terms (your mother is as related to you as your own children would be). Its completely alien to all but one mammal species, the naked mole rat, which has evolved a lifestyle very much like a social insect.
|
Makes sense. Insects as genetically programmed for the survival and care of the colony, as opposed to the survival and care of their own offspring. The ramifications are interesting. Did you know that worker ants are females who are fanatically devoted to the other female ants, but not so much devoted the male ants? And that it is the elder female ants (as opposed to young males) which are sent out to fight and protect the colony? This came as a surprise to me; they're amazonian femi-nazis, kinda like Hilary.
But roachboy, why hasn't communism ever worked out in the real world, you know, like outside of books?