I think ants are conscious beings, because I have observed their behaviour.
I observed an ant fall into an ant-lion’s nest one day. As I watched the ant struggle to climb out of the angle of repose, and I cruelly waited for the ant-lion to appear, all in the name of science, I noticed a group of 5 ants form a linked chain that descended into the ant lion’s hole. They descend the ant-chain into the ant lion’s nest to pull the trapped ant out. They managed to grab the ant that had had fallen in and drag her (ants from a colony are either sisters and half-sisters) out, however, as they were completing their rescue, another ant (from the rescue chain) fell inside the ant lion’s nest, so they all reformed a chain and saved him too. I figured that the originally trapped ant must have sent a signal to the passing ants that it needed help. I know that ants cannot hear as they have no ears*) so it must have been a pheromone of sorts, which suggests that they may have different types of chemical signals I supposed, one for “I have found food”, and “please help me”. This made me think that ants have consciousness, whereby they are aware of their surrounding and can make decisions accordingly, just like humans.
Another time I squashed a cockroach in my driveway, partly in the name of science, and partly because they are a procreating nightmarish pest. Actually I did it to show my son how quickly ants would swarm to disassemble and/or eat the dead cockroach. Within 2 minutes they were all over the cockroach. I asked my son to film all of this, attached below.
What I saw was amazing. I saw some ants run back towards the nest to tell others, but there were some ants that only went part way to the entrance. These ants stood up on the hind legs and franticly waved with the front legs, like a signal. In tens of seconds more ants came out of the various holes around where the cockroach laid dead. Some of these nest entrances were about 3 metres away. I knew that they were not juts signalling with pheromones, but to see them use visual signals was amazing, and explained to me at least how quickly they were able to swam and dismantle the dead cockroach. I do not think my son believed me, but I had seen this amazing race before. The video my son took is attached below.
Not only were all of these ants able to summons each other to come and dismantle and take the dead cockroach back to the nest but they were highly coordinated in the way they went about their work. They must have been communicating visually in my opinion, or make sounds, barking out instruction. Not only are ants conscious as noted above, but they can collectively act as super organism greater than the parts by organising themselves.
I also think consciousness with includes our detailed awareness of our environment and our bodies (I am talking about humans now) is related deeply to the fact that our brains are divided into left and right hemispheres. somehow this enables us to project a 3 dimensional holographic visual and somatosensory image of ourselves and coordinate all of our senses simultaneously. What we see in front of us and how we perceive pain, etc., in our limbs, etc., is all generated by the brain, in the brain but projected outwards again. It is truly amazing. The interesting thing is that almost all animals has bilateral brains, so this make me think that they are all conscious living things.
Scientists usually assess whether an animals has self-awareness by painting a coloured spot on them and see if they recognise themselves in a mirror and try to remove that spot. This has been done with orangutans, dolphins, and even chimpanzees. Some ants are also known to have this ability #).
It so appears that ants are conscious, possibly self-conscious, and can act as a super organism. “We are family, all my sisters and me”. Ants are clearly intelligent creatures, but are not as intelligent as humans. There are levels of consciousness, self-consciousness, and in the ability to think, plan and execute tasks. Humans are on top of the apex, but there is good reason to think other animals are also self-aware to some extent using whatever senses they have. Self-awareness offers a biological advantage to the survival of the organism. If an animal has a model of the world around it (consciousness) it has a model of itself in relation to that environment, no matter how primitive that may be.
How ants act as a super organism will be addressed in a future publication. All of what I have said above applies to bees and other animals. They are all conscious and self-conscious to some degree. in a manner of speaking.
*) Even though ants do not have ears, they do make sounds by rubbing bodily parts together or tapping their bodies or mandibles on surfaces. These sounds are not audible to the human ear as they are too faint but have been detected with specialized equipment. They are generally squeaking or chirping sounds. They can be used to signal food or danger, in addition to using pheromones.
#)Cammaets, M.-C., and Cammaets, R. (2015). “Are Ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) Capable of Self Recognition?”, Journal of Science, 5(7), 521-532.
I would like thank my son, Daniel Christos, for stimulating my thoughts about these matters.