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Free Will-And How The Brain Is Like A Colony Of Ants: Response

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Words 422
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Alison Tassone
Professor Gordon Ruesch
Comp 1A
September 3, 2014
How the Brain is Like a Colony of Ants: Response In Edward O. Wilson’s educational article, “On Free Will-And How the Brain is Like a Colony of Ants”, Wilson compares the brain, the mind, and consciousness to a community of ants. Through this analogy, Wilson portrays the human brain as an extremely elaborate organ. In its complexity and in all of its contributing parts, the brain is indeed similar to a colony of ants. Like the many individual ants working towards a common goal, the human brain relies on many neurons to function. Figuratively speaking, each neuron is like a separate ant. The brain can’t run without the nerve cells, just as the community of insects can not survive without ants digging, transporting food, and providing for the queen ant. The brain, in this analogy, is the queen ant. Wilson further supports the correlation by stating, Every part, whatever it …show more content…
Ants are one of the most committed creatures on this planet. They can carry an absurd amount of weight considering their minute size, and work diligently for their leader. Ants, also, like the brain, have evolved and progressed over millions of years, developing a more efficient system. Overall, the human brain system and an ant colony both work like a team. Each part involves instinct and monotony. But once everything comes together, the result is about as close to magic as one can get. Wilson expresses, With comparing the brain to a colony of ants, consequences do follow. This concept makes the brain seem less intriguing to study and even perhaps too intense to fully comprehend. By claiming that the brain is the most complex organ, and by saying that so much goes into its performance, one basically rules out ever potentially deciphering it. That is truly unfortunate. With the ant colony analogy, not many people retain that faith to make sense of the

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