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ant-related talk
always seems to get dropped at the most casual of times.
when ants are brought to the table of discussion,
i get a chill up my spine.
the hair stands up on the back of my neck. chills
i start sweating.
my legs bounce wildly.
these physiological consequences
are the work of the ants inside me.
in the present case, it was this dude saying
(at dinner),
“is charli xcx controlled by ants?”
my response was, of course,
“yes. the person we know as charli xcx
is an exoskeleton. she is ants.”
charli xcx is ants, just like we all are.
super-organism
within a colony,
an individual ant does not and cannot know the aims of
the colony as a whole.
the consciousness is distributed across all of the ants,
and it cannot be experienced in its entirety by a single ant——
just like a single neuron can’t tell you anything meaningful
about the intentions of your brain——
just like a single pixel on a TV screen can’t tell you
what’s on.
pixel
consciousness as we know it is experienced by collectives.
a colony of ants experiences consciousness at the level of the superorganism (how else could they dig such vast and coordinated anthills?);
a colony of neurons experiences consciousness at the level of the bodymindbrainbehaviorself.
consciousness is an emergent property of well-connected systems, like brains and ant colonies. it emerges from vastness and complexity.
might individual ants
or neurons
experience their own
microscopic versions
of consciousness?
they, too, are collectives.
they, too,
consist
of
(microscopic) ants.
ants are capable of making “BRAT” (2024).
ants are also capable of making more traditionally
mainstream pop, like “E•MO•TION” (2015).
each colony——
each anthill——
is different from the next,
just like BRAT is different from E•MO•TION,
but the experience of consciousness——
and main pop girlness——
is not different at all.
to think of humans (or ants) as individuals is ridiculous.
we are not one.
we are not two.
we are ants.
everything is romantic
von dutch