Stop looking for extraterrestrial civilizations, there is one in the earth, scientists: In front of it, humans are advanced civilizations

In the wilderness of the northeastern region of Brazil, there is a huge colony of white ants. It is estimated that it existed 3000 to 800 years ago, and it is still in use and construction until now, with a total area of ​​about 228,000 square kilometers. , there are more than 200 million mounds that can be seen on the surface, and can even be photographed in outer space. Coincidentally, a giant red ant colony appeared on the seaside of Hokkaido, which contains more than 300 million worker ants , 1.08 million queens, they live in 45,000 interconnected crypts, crypts spread over an area of ​​27,000 square kilometers.

Maybe you don’t have any basic concepts about these data, so let’s make a simple analogy. If you compare small ants to humans and a huge colony to a city, the colonies they build are equivalent to more than 13,400 human-built colonies. The urban agglomeration on the surface of the earth. Note that the surface area of ​​the earth is mentioned here, and it also includes the ocean. On the other hand, for human beings, our scope of activities is still limited to one earth. Of course, from a human point of view, an ant's nest looks like an ordinary mound. This kind of sparse mound cannot be called a building. Since it is not a building, it has nothing to do with civilization.

The basic element of civilization is to have buildings. Perhaps many people do not know that ant nests are not only buildings, but also functional buildings. Previously, scientists from the United Kingdom and the United States formed a research team to study the huge ant nests in the African Sahara. The whole study lasted for 3 years. The scientists were surprised to find that no matter how the temperature outside changed greatly, the temperature inside the ant nest But nothing changed. You know, the temperature difference in the Sahara Desert is very large, it can reach more than 40 degrees during the day, and sometimes it will drop below zero at night. Scientists have found that no matter how the temperature outside changes, the temperature inside the ant nest remains three degrees Celsius in spring, summer, autumn and winter. Not only that, in some hot areas, the flue of some termite nests can be as high as 20 meters, so that the ant nest can automatically adjust the air inside, so that the ant nest can maintain a stable humidity.

In addition, the ant nest is not only the mound seen on the ground, it also extends deep underground. The intricate aisles in the ant nest form a network of passages. Such passages can let in fresh air. At the same time, the normally breathed exhaust gas is discharged, so as to prevent the compatriots from suffocating and dying due to the lack of fresh air inside, so the ant nest also has the function of ventilation at the same time. Now let's discuss again, can a termite nest like this that can control temperature and ventilation function be called a building? If people don't rely on electricity and fire, can they build buildings that have both functions at the same time? To this end, some designers have been inspired by termite nests to build large buildings with passive cooling, and cooling is only one of the functions of ant nests.

Fifty million years ago, the ancestor of the little ant, the leaf-cutter ant, began to plant fungi. Since then, they have gradually trained new fungus one by one, and planted them in rotation. Until now, they will continue to grow. Train the new bacterin. Scientists have discovered a unique fungus in ant nests in Africa, which is not found anywhere else in the world. It may be unimaginable that termites use this fungus to convert wood pulp into plant fibers for building ant nests. , and also use it to break down sugar and use it to supplement its own energy. Having mastered the use of antibiotics and microbes for the last tens of millions of years, it's even harder to believe that some colonies can train other species to produce honeydew.

And in the last tens of millions of years, they are still exploring new domesticable organisms, and the domesticated organisms have also undergone behavioral and life cycle changes. Should we call these agriculture too much? Before ants could use tools, some ants were found to use soil and gravel to collect liquids, and a scientific experiment a few years ago proved that ants can also choose the most suitable tools from unfamiliar objects. The Hungarian scientific research team used some small tools to carry out scientific experiments on the little ants, including the familiar twigs and soil, as well as artificial paper and artificial sponges. The purpose of the experiment was to observe which tools the little ants would choose to transfer honey.

If we leave this question to us, then in terms of efficiency, sponges are undoubtedly the best tool for migrating liquid honey. Of course, this is only after we are in God mode and understand the properties of sponges that we come to that answer. The amazing thing is that although sponges are completely unfamiliar to ants, they have also made the same decision as us. The little ants will use those tools to carry out scientific experiments one by one, and finally decide on sponges. Many ants will also The sponge is torn into small pieces, which makes it easier to carry. Therefore, ants can not only use tools, but also transform tools, and there are more powerful ants that can smelt metals to a certain extent. They will use formic acid to decompose metal materials such as zinc, magnesium, manganese, and even gold and silver, and then through the transformation of material circulation, that is, the way of eating, to improve the compressive strength of their bodies, so krypton gold is indeed possible to a certain extent. Enhanced equipment.

Let's learn another characteristic of ant colonies. In ant colonies, the phenomenon of class differentiation is very prominent. Maybe everyone has a certain understanding of this. The division of responsibilities of ant colonies is very clear, and worker ants are responsible for the vast majority of Most of the work, such as foraging, food management, babysitting and nest care, etc. Worker ants are also tasked with digesting cellulose, so almost all of them are found in wood. In worker ants, there are both females and males, but the reproductive organs are degenerated, and they are usually not fertile. The work of reproduction is done by specialized ants, that is, the queen ant and the queen ant, and the eggs laid by the queen ant are the same, but After hatching, there will be differences. Unfertilized eggs will develop into male ants. After sperm eggs are combined into larvae, they will develop into female ants with good nutrient absorption, while those with poor nutrient absorption will develop into worker ants and soldier ants.

Speaking of which, do you feel that the setting of the ant society, if you want to say that it is an alien civilization, I don't think there is any sense of disobedience. The communication between ants will use something called pheromones. Humans may never be able to understand the true meaning of pheromones, and don’t hope that the little ants can understand our thoughts correctly. Communication between civilizations is a big problem, and this situation also applies to the relationship between higher civilizations and humans. Humans have been trying their best to find extraterrestrial civilizations. Maybe in the eyes of some extraterrestrial civilizations, humans are just ants, and they are also speaking some language called pheromones, which makes them unable to communicate. And they also clearly know that humans may never understand it, just as ants will never understand humans.