Leaf Cutter Ants & Hidden Intelligence

Take leaf cutter ants... who actually drag a leaf into their lair and grow fungus on it. They're farming.

This behavior is considered instinctual, but what does that even mean? Perhaps the decision making aspect of this creature lies in another dimension of being (beyond the frontal lobe, beyond our capacity for sensing). 

If the ant constantly modified its behavior, we might perceive something impressive about it, but maybe the ant doesn't change its behavior because it works. This is like an indigenous person, who may not be in a rush to create a better light bulb, because it already has one--with many advanced built in features. 

The sun is full spectrum, it's free, and it tells you when the day begins & when the day is over. For all practical purposes, it never burns out. Oh, and a person's entire system is in rhythm with it. Maybe, to that person, the sun isn't even the center of the solar system, but it's valued nonetheless. This is a working relationship.

A tribal person might, likewise, miss out on the rush to a better shoe, while meanwhile (in civilization,) the shoe appears to be, gradually, evolving all the way back back to barefoot. (That is not to say that correction of long term muscle imbalances might not be a hurtle between these worlds.)

Some native populations are said to connect with the collective spirit of a particular creature, say "spirit of the bear" or whatever. The point is that they regard these beings with a certain respect--and understand there's a mysterious and deep nature to reality. 

Perhaps that more ethereal or intangible place is the level at which decisions of the ant are made, without the weighty meat of a frontal lobe, someplace outside the visible spectrum of light. 

This is all very intangible, of course, and doesn't take into account how an ant would react to an extreme adaptation scenario... something akin to what a modern (post agriculture, post industrial) human faces, but, at the very least, these thoughts plunge me into mystery. While mystery may not provide an exact logical answer, it can provide a transcendence of framework. 

Frameworks tend to be relative, and especially in modern times, tend to become obsolete. There is a tendency for our framework to deny intelligence in the world around us (and to deny its ability to sense and adjust.) It taught to me, when I was younger, incorrect notions, such as fish do not feel pain.

The mysterious view regards the world with wonder and grants the world a certain respect. And, as we are a people, in relationship with the world, we indirectly grant ourselves a certain respect--by treating the habitat, upon which we depend--and are interwoven with--kindly.

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” -Einstein (maybe anyhow.)