[ExI] Ant mega-colony takes over world

[spike]

> ...On Behalf Of Emlyn
> Subject: [ExI] Ant mega-colony takes over world
> 
> Can the rats and mice push us to enhance them far enough soon 
> enough, to stave off the insectoid menace?
> 
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8127000/8127519.stm
> 
> --
> Emlyn


I was thinking the opposite.  If we could learn to fully control the ants,
there would be no better rat detroyer, or locust, fly, possibly mosquito
abatement device, or perhaps an alternate cross pollinator.  Or machines for
assembling tiny robots.  Or garbage recycling preprocessors, or something to
that effect, or terrain denial weapons, less lethal than land mines, but
perfectly effective, or a means of sequestering carbon, or mining materials
such as bat shit or phosphorus, or for cutting up leaves in order to help it
break down, or as garbage grinders, or something.

For tiny bio-robots, ants are a good choice, hard to beat: they reproduce
quickly, and they are already preadapted for doing some curious behavior
when the appropriate chemical signal is present.

spike