I just found an interesting article that I wanted to share with you guys. Will we end up having an overmind sooner or later? :D
Scientists in a variety of fields including entomology, evolutionary biology, systems ecology, astrobiology, and physics, help us determine how much of the technology featured in the StarCraft universe is entirely science fiction and what could actually exist in real life.
Excerpt:
The Overmind To control the vast billions that comprise the Zerg race, a hivemind consciousness rules over the species. This consciousness, known as the Overmind, provides direction for the raging masses of the Zerg brood. It is even suggested that individual Zerg have no conscious mind whatsoever. Are there examples of this kind of hivemind on Earth?
It is currently impossible to say with any certainty whether there could be a race like the Zerg out in the vastness of space. However, our own planet has a wonderful variety of life forms in extremely diverse environments. So it's possible that looking inward at our own planet could give us a decent idea of what Zerg-like aliens would be like.
"Construction occurs in an entirely opposite context to a hivemind," says Dr. Gene Robinson, professor of Entomology at the University of Illinois, about bee and ant behaviors. "Bees respond to local cues with a behavioral response, without knowing what the global state or goal might be. Local actions give rise to phenomenal global patterns, with no one in charge."
We don't have a consciousness that mirrors the Zerg, but the end result can still be similar.
In 2009, scientists learned that separate ant colonies in Japan, Europe, and South America were actually part of a massive global super-colony. This is theorized to have been accomplished by stowing away on human transport, and overthrowing native colonies. So even with a different type of hivemind, Zerg-like tendencies can still emerge.
Verdict Plausible
Hybrid Species The three central races of the Starcraft universe are perfect foils for one another. Not only in terms of perfectly balanced gameplay, but also biology and story. So it was inevitable that they would start trying to meld their races together, to create extremely powerful hybrids capable of turning the tide of the war.
The Zerg show this capability in their infestation of Kerrigan, while the Terran are known to have experimented with implanting Protoss tissue into their spy units, Ghosts. Even the extremely powerful Xel'naga race of Starcraft lore experimented heavily with combining Zerg and Protoss DNA. But is it likely that the DNA of species separated by half a galaxy could be combined?
"The easiest way to meld two species would be to use genetic engineering to insert the desired genes of one species into another," says Dr. Michael Alfaro, professor of evolutionary biology at UCLA. "This is already happening -– transgenic animals are commonly created to express human diseases in lab animals like mice as well as weird animals like bunnies that glow and goats that produce spider silk in their milk."
"This does not mean that biologists can create a [hybrid] animal with any desired mix of traits," Alfaro continues. "Though it is not so far-fetched to imagine a technologically advanced society doing something like this."
I thought it was commonly known that ants don't act on their own but are basically doing what the queen in the hive is in need of. Hive minded, basically.
In 2009, scientists learned that separate ant colonies in Japan, Europe, and South America were actually part of a massive global super-colony. This is theorized to have been accomplished by stowing away on human transport, and overthrowing native colonies. So even with a different type of hivemind, Zerg-like tendencies can still emerge.
This is the coolest/scariest thing I have ever heard.
Ants do what is best for the colony, not the queen. In some species, if the current queen is getting old and not producing and many eggs then she may be deposed if there is a rival queen hanging around.
Besides everything is based on pheromone levels with ants, there is no centralized command and control with them.
As for the super colony, I think that is just a species of ants that doesn't compete with ants of the same species so every time a colony splits off - the colonies only attack other types of ants.
In the year 3010 the world will be in war between the terrans(humans), the zerg(the ants), the ehmm some race similar to the protoss :D and the hybrids (the hybrid animals) :D
But seriously the quote jinro quoted is scary though if you think about it ><
On August 15 2010 21:52 Tritonus wrote: I thought it was commonly known that ants don't act on their own but are basically doing what the queen in the hive is in need of. Hive minded, basically.
ants don't actually operate under the direct control of the queen the way zergs do, they just have a series of basic commands that they follow in varying priority based on different things in the nest but it's a cool read :D edit:
The Overmind .... "Construction occurs in an entirely opposite context to a hivemind," says Dr. Gene Robinson, professor of Entomology at the University of Illinois, about bee and ant behaviors. "Bees respond to local cues with a behavioral response, without knowing what the global state or goal might be. Local actions give rise to phenomenal global patterns, with no one in charge."
We don't have a consciousness that mirrors the Zerg, but the end result can still be similar. ....
I mean maybe I just meant to say that I thought people knew that ants kinda have a collective conscious, that they are in fact biological "robots" with no awareness of their own.
Last week I saw a group of ant eating away at a dead bee, and I pointed to it with my finger quite near it to show my friend. As my finger neared, the ants sensed a presence and sent out two ants a couple of inches from the bee, one was facing in my direction and the other was looking slightly to the right of me, while the rest of the ants kept working away at the bee.
I thought that was quite cool that they sent out "scouts". Ants = drones. Bees = minerals.
On August 15 2010 21:33 Schnake wrote: In 2009, scientists learned that separate ant colonies in Japan, Europe, and South America were actually part of a massive global super-colony.
That's a pretty vague statement and I'm pretty sure it just means that they're the same species, not that they can telepathically communicate. To think that telepathy is possible because a few ants crawl around is just ridiculous.
On August 15 2010 21:33 Schnake wrote: In 2009, scientists learned that separate ant colonies in Japan, Europe, and South America were actually part of a massive global super-colony.
That's a pretty vague statement and I'm pretty sure it just means that they're the same species, not that they can telepathically communicate. To think that telepathy is possible because a few ants crawl around is just ridiculous.
what in the article even indicates they would have a telepathic connection, or that ants even work that way
On August 15 2010 21:33 Schnake wrote: In 2009, scientists learned that separate ant colonies in Japan, Europe, and South America were actually part of a massive global super-colony.
That's a pretty vague statement and I'm pretty sure it just means that they're the same species, not that they can telepathically communicate. To think that telepathy is possible because a few ants crawl around is just ridiculous.
what in the article even indicates they would have a telepathic connection, or that ants even work that way
I was using the article to back up my thoughts, which is that the OP is stretching it a bit.
the problem with a real hive mind like the overmind is that it would either have to communicate with the "swarm" telepathically (at the moment this is highly unlikely to even be possible, as brains are not machines with a predefined output pattern that can be read), or it would have to be some kind of super plant where every animal returns to a nest during night and receives new information or something.
On August 15 2010 22:31 heishe wrote: the problem with a real hive mind like the overmind is that it would either have to communicate with the "swarm" telepathically (at the moment this is highly unlikely to even be possible, as brains are not machines with a predefined output pattern that can be read), or it would have to be some kind of super plant where every animal returns to a nest during night and receives new information or something.
well there were those worm-like things i forgot the names on (cerebrates if i'm not wrong?) and having a special species collecting the messages and fly to the cerebrate and give him them would be possible, though slow. the chance of a system like where the creatures acted on their own in battles or had more powerful creatures command them in the field would be better
On August 15 2010 21:59 Phayze wrote: Im freaking scared shitless, as an ant just crawled onto my desk seconds before I read this and I killed it. Oh god help me... zerg incoming.
People are too obsessed with putting their own way of thinking in place of what is. The Hive can occur without the need for an "Overmind", but people are paranoid and always think about "someone" in control. Another problem is the refusal to categorize systems a little more flexibly. For example, we could argue that the "overmind" is the sum total of all ants. The ants form a communication network between each other, similarly to the way a brain does. In the brain there isn't one neuron which controls all the others, but it still works remarkably well. Sure, ants have queens, but as we see the ant colonies could be interlinked too, and there isn't one queen to rule them all. Similarly, in the brain there are more major and less major clusters of neurons. Thanks a lot for this, interesting read!
In 2009, scientists learned that separate ant colonies in Japan, Europe, and South America were actually part of a massive global super-colony. This is theorized to have been accomplished by stowing away on human transport, and overthrowing native colonies. So even with a different type of hivemind, Zerg-like tendencies can still emerge.
This is the coolest/scariest thing I have ever heard.
Oh Lord! Maybe we're just part of a huge intergalactic nydus network using black holes as nydus canals. X_X
maybe it's just me but i always considered the zerg to be heavily inspired by ants and bees and the like. i can't say i studied them, but i thoroughly informed myself of ants, cuz they're pretty awesome. iirc, it's not telepathy (surprise), they leave pheremone trails for other ants to follow. also, it's completely possible for them to have super colonies because of this, so long as the ant colonies keep making paths to travel between the colonies and keep them connected. if it interests you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant#Behaviour_and_ecology
I have been interested in ants and swarm behaviour for quite some time now. When you start diving into how ant swarms work it really gets creepy. We should concider ourselfs lucky that ants aren't activly trying to destroy us ^^
In 2009, scientists learned that separate ant colonies in Japan, Europe, and South America were actually part of a massive global super-colony. This is theorized to have been accomplished by stowing away on human transport, and overthrowing native colonies. So even with a different type of hivemind, Zerg-like tendencies can still emerge.
This is the coolest/scariest thing I have ever heard.
On August 15 2010 23:44 Amestir wrote: I have been interested in ants and swarm behaviour for quite some time now. When you start diving into how ant swarms work it really gets creepy. We should concider ourselfs lucky that ants aren't activly trying to destroy us ^^
How do you know they're not? I once heard about an estimate of how many ants there are on earth, and I almost passed out. Can anyone find this number?
Imagine that when they hit a "critical number" where enough colonies are connected, they'd be able to systematically take over entire territories... Ha!
Oh, and btw, banelings, as posted in another thread, are real.
Earth That Was The principle reason that the Terran left planet Earth was due to catastrophic scarcity of resources caused by the world's 23 billion people. The original colonists were sent on an interstellar mission to colonize a new sector of the universe and to discover new sources of minerals and resources for the survival of humanity. But could things ever get that bad on Earth?
Given that I think the Earth is enormously and horribly overpopulated already, I find this to be an impossibility," -Dr. Charles A. Hall, Professors of Systems Ecology at New York State University "Given that I think the Earth is enormously and horribly overpopulated already, I find this to be an impossibility," says Dr. Charles A. Hall, professor of systems ecology at the State University of New York.
Hall says that the rapid population escalation over the past 100-150 years has been due mostly to agricultural advances. Since most experts today believe we've reached the peak of oil production, that will put a cap on how much food we are able to farm (tractors, pesticides, and irrigation systems are all heavily petroleum-dependent.) No additional food means fewer babies.
"So no," says Hall. "I do not think we can maintain even the present population."
While it seems impossible for the global population to ever reach Starcraft's enormous 23 billion, global resource shortages still seem inevitable nonetheless.
Verdict Mostly True
Terrans in the kropulu sector were prisoners sent away into some fancy exploration project, not because earth life was unsustainable.
That is pretty cool. It is not surprising, given a lot of sci-fi is based off nature and current science, maybe exaggerated or misinterpreted.
The space surviving bacteria was pretty interesting. omg maybe we're fucking something up by having satellites/camera travel around space and act as transports for these bacteria lol. His response made me wonder, how do zerg travel around the galaxy? Mutas and OL's cant fly lightspeed!
Fun read, but I wish they went more technichal and deep into the SC lore. Also if I remember right the Terrans were originally prisoners from Earth that were sent deep into the galaxy for a reason I forgot.
On August 16 2010 07:29 ironchef wrote: That is pretty cool. It is not surprising, given a lot of sci-fi is based off nature and current science, maybe exaggerated or misinterpreted.
The space surviving bacteria was pretty interesting. omg maybe we're fucking something up by having satellites/camera travel around space and act as transports for these bacteria lol. His response made me wonder, how do zerg travel around the galaxy? Mutas and OL's cant fly lightspeed!
You know, they've found water on Mars, so basically, there could just as well be bacteria there too. When some Mars satellites return to Earth with a deadly, unstoppable micro-organism that wipes out the earth, I'll be punching some austronaut in the face with my zergy hands.
On August 15 2010 23:44 Amestir wrote: I have been interested in ants and swarm behaviour for quite some time now. When you start diving into how ant swarms work it really gets creepy. We should concider ourselfs lucky that ants aren't activly trying to destroy us ^^
How do you know they're not? I once heard about an estimate of how many ants there are on earth, and I almost passed out. Can anyone find this number?
Imagine that when they hit a "critical number" where enough colonies are connected, they'd be able to systematically take over entire territories... Ha!
Oh, and btw, banelings, as posted in another thread, are real.
[quote=Wiki Answers]2,308,263,650,000,000,000 ants exist on planet earth.
The land area on earth is approximately 57,491,000 square miles and at 10 ants per square inches you get 2,308,263,650,000,000,000 ants on planet earth.[/quote]
Kind of alot of ants...even if Wiki Answers may not be the most reliable place for an answer, that is still pretty scary.
As for those IRL banelings, first I was like :D because banelings are awesome. Then I was like O.O because banelings do not like people.
On August 15 2010 23:44 Amestir wrote: I have been interested in ants and swarm behaviour for quite some time now. When you start diving into how ant swarms work it really gets creepy. We should concider ourselfs lucky that ants aren't activly trying to destroy us ^^
Yeah. Except, you know, pesticides... The science of Starcraft here is really more just common sense. You don't need to be a neurologist to know that Ghosts are impossible, in any sense of the word. I'd rather see information about the gauss rifles, or how FTL communication and travel works (especially for zerg), but I don't think there's much or any information available. The few things they say during the WoL campaign is just meaningless Star Trek babble
This is kind of interesting. I was just watching a documentary on ants earlier today. They were talking about how ants communicate by way of pheromones. These pheromone messages are carried and passed from one ant to another until the message gets to everyone that it needs to. Apparently this is very fast. It apparently would only take a few hours for an entire forest of one species of ant to know of a disturbance like a fire or even the location of something that might threaten "the hive." It doesn't sound like a long distance, but if you really think about it, a forest compared to something the size of an ant could be equivalent to an area the size of Manhattan. Of course they'd have trouble communicating through distances although it's not hard to imagine an adaptive species of ant that might cook up something like long distance pheromone transport. :D Watch out the swarm is coming.
EPT
![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/ba/PhaseIV.jpg/200px-PhaseIV.jpg)
