So I often come back to the question of defining what we mean by "intelligence." It's pretty easy to get disgusted say it's not even worth trying to define because it is a word used in such inconsistent ways.
Intelligence is a positive attribute that describes the decision making capacity and effectiveness.
* Is a scientific calculator intelligent?
* Is a billionaire intelligent?
* Is the largest blue whale the most intelligent animal alive because it has the most brain mass?
"Aphids are less intelligent than ants." I think even the ants and aphids are aware of this. But, what does that statement really mean?
Aphids make very few observable interesting decisions.
In contrast to this ants are constantly making decisions that are easy to observe. For some aphids, part of their survival strategy is to allow ants to make most of their decisions for them.
Ants decide where they forage. Ants decide if they reproduce. Ants even regulate their digestive system.
It is staggering how many decisions ants manage given their size.
Part of the ant strategy is to have enough ants, all making decisions that if some of them make bad decisions it won't matter much, someone will get it right. They are also very quick to follow other colony members who are having success. This is the famous "emergent" colony intelligence.
If you watch leaf cutter ants there will always be one ant carrying the leaf in the wrong direction. But, eventually she gets turned around.
That one ant going the "wrong way" isn't less intelligent than the rest. She's an essential part of the system.
Because sometimes that ant finds a shortcut. If she finds a short cut the pheromone path and even the passive evidence of her motion, the freshness of the leaf bit she delivers will attract more ants to her path. Quickly, without discussion or resentment all of the ants switch to the new shorter path.
The wrong way ants prevent the ants from being trapped in bad attractors.
@futurebird
The funny thing is that human innovation often starts with "the wrong way"
E.g. the discovery of x-rays by the accidental x-ray of Wilhelm Röntgens wife Anna Bertha Ludwig's hand .
Or the discovery of penicillin through an contaminated sample
