At the beginning of his rebirth and time travel, after the protagonist accepted his fate of becoming an ant, he accepted its extremely primitive and wild lifestyle based on the fixed impression of ants in his mind.
And when he learned that "fire" actually existed in the main nest of the ant colony he was in, that was the first time that the protagonist's three views were shattered and reshaped.
The use of "fire" is an important symbol of a race's transition from primitiveness to civilization. The protagonist can no longer regard the race he belongs to as the creatures in the ant nests that can be seen everywhere on the roadside of the human world. It is a pile of primitive mobile ganglia, but it must be understood, contacted and adapted with the eyes of a civilized race.
Because "fire" is of such great significance, the protagonist even ignores some other very surprising characteristics of this group of big-headed ants: to some extent, very convenient information exchange methods, strict organizational structure, strict hierarchy, Educational systems and collective intelligence.
These neglected characteristics are basically the same as the admiration of ants in the human world, but they have developed from primitiveness to a very high level, and for an early civilization, their significance is no more than that of "fire". "Be low."
If these five characteristics are converted into human society, they can roughly correspond to: language, the emergence of primitive leadership and decision-making organizations in clans or tribes (general assembly, military chiefs, wizards, etc.), class differentiation, the increase of elders and Advantages for seniors.
Only collective intelligence is the unique evolution of ants as eusocial insects. It is completely different from the human world that usually thinks that meetings, discussions, etc. are collective intelligence.
Let’s compare the similarities and differences between ants and humans in these five points.
Language is the most important communication tool for human beings and the main way of expression for people to communicate. People use language to preserve and transmit the achievements of human civilization.
There are different hypotheses and theories about the origin of human language.
The theory that everything has its own name and that our ancestors knew as much about them as they did about other natural phenomena is thought to be insufficient to account for the arbitrary and abstract nature of human language.
Another theory is that human language originally came from imitating the sounds of nature. For example, the sound of "woof" can be used to represent "dog".
There is also a theory that the original language was to express, usually not very pleasant, emotional responses, such as some interjections.
The fourth theory is that language originated from gestures accompanied by speech. For example, when we see delicious food, we will make movements such as stroking our belly and licking our lips, and at the same time make the sound "Mum" in our mouths.
Finally, there is also a theory that sounds and meanings are initially combined arbitrarily, and through repeated use, fixed non-arbitrary connections are formed between sounds and meanings.
These theories have some validity because they are consistent with imagined or actual verbal or non-verbal human behavior, and more intelligent apes may also learn language through these methods. Real language is a fusion of different origins and factors.
The more we know about how a child acquires language, the more precise hypotheses we can formulate about the origins of human language. Linguists and psychologists have found that normal language habits have fairly fixed learning stages.
Babies start babbling about 3 months after birth. When he is almost one year old, he starts to speak some words, and the meaning of these words is actually equivalent to phrases or clauses. By the age of 2, he can begin to speak some phrases consisting of two or three words, and can use very simple and accurate syntax. During these stages, children are gradually mastering pronunciation and intonation. And the development of these stages is interrelated with the establishment of abstract concepts.
From the research on the localization of brain functions, the acquisition of language is even related to the origin of language. The difference between the human brain and other apes is that the left hemisphere of the brain is larger and more developed. Although functions related to semantics, grammar, and tone are controlled by both hemispheres at the same time, the right hemisphere mainly controls the understanding of concrete things, while the left hemisphere mainly controls the understanding of abstract concepts, so the latter has become the language center of humans. Around adolescence, an individual's brain master function has been established, and thus the ability to learn language easily and quickly in early childhood is gradually lost.
The importance of language to human civilization lies in its social function and thinking function. The social function includes the information transmission function and the interpersonal interaction function.
Language is a thinking tool and a communication tool. It is closely related to thinking. It is the carrier, material shell and form of expression of thinking. It is the most important communication tool for human beings. It is a tool for the application of thinking logic and information interaction and transmission. It is the embodiment of The carrier of human cognitive achievements.
After humans created language, they created writing. Words are the visual form of language. Text breaks through the space and time limitations of spoken language and can play a greater role.
Now, the combination of antennae communication and pheromones and odor information in the ant world obviously also has the characteristics of language, breaking the common perception that language is a human creation and only humans have real language.
Compared with human language, the "language" of ants has very obvious advantages and disadvantages, but its role in civilization is equally significant.
The "language" of ants is combined in different ways, each with its own advantages. Antenna communication can exchange a large amount of information in a short period of time, and its speed is far faster than the transmission speed of human speech and text. Moreover, the received information can be retained for a long time and has strong confidentiality. It is almost like every ant has it in its brain. A hard drive and email. Pheromones are a specialized "language" of instructions with different effects. Odor signals are "language" that can spread over a wide range.
However, the shortcomings of ants' "language" are its wide spread and long-term retention.
When humans express their opinions to tens of thousands of people in public, ants can only use smell information to express a few limited meanings unless they are in a specially designed conference room, and most of them are Military vocabulary.
While humans can use words, a derivative of language, to record and save information for a long time, ants' information can only be retained by the brain of each ant, and then the information is destroyed after death.
But no matter what, the "language" of ants, which is very different from any human language, is still a necessary medium for their civilization and plays an increasingly important role.
