# Ants and 'Hive Minds'

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ants-and-hive-minds/1605>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [February 14, 2000, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ants-and-hive-minds/1605 "2000-02-14T20:12:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ccd318/32.png) [@John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Kentzel-Griffin)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2000, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ants-and-hive-minds/1605/21 "2000-03-03T19:06:00Z")

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The queen is not the monarch of the hive. She is the reproductive body. I don’t believe she knows anything except how to lay eggs. (Well she does raise her first brood, but after they hatch she just sits and reproduces.

Douglas Hofstander wrote a book “Godel, Escher, Bach an Eternal Golden Braid”. In the book is a character, the Anteater, who has a friend that is an ant colony (named Aunt Hillary \<groan\> ). He is _not_ a friend to the individual ants, but is a good friend to the collective. The personality of Aunt Hillary is emergent behavior, the ants themselves are unaware of her.

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Virtually yours,

DrMatrix  
These words are mine and they are true - Chief Meninock

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