ESSAY 17
If we look in natural domains, we find that social insects, including ants and bees, have the capability to incorporate themselves into the world, develop their niches, and give rise to progeny. In fact, the term "super organism" was first used for social insects in a book in 1928, and the thought has waxed and waned over the long years, occasionally producing bitterness. It denotes a grouping of individual members that form a colony with many attributes of a sole organism. Members of a colony, for example, can be considered as an organism's cells, and a number of different castes can be organized similar to organs are within a single animal. The amazing complication of a colony results from easy managerial processes hard-wired hooked on the colony members.
Social characteristics of humans
In fact, insect societies have gained a particular inspiration especially to those who would like to visualize human societies functioning just as efficiently, with every member and devotedly satisfying a role for the sake of advantage of the bigger group. Humans come across a group where each and every member behaves as if they are a fraction of an ant or bee colony, wherein each member is ready to sacrifice everything, even their lives, for the sake of survival of the group.
All individuals have evolved from simpler organisms that function in a cooperative manner. Human body is comprised of a whole range of cells that function together for cleaning of blood, digesting of food and walking. Furthermore, the cells of a body are actually a collection of organelles, or small organs, as for instance the energy-producing mitochondria. Scientists hold the view that mitochondria were once single-celled creatures being absorbed by larger cells that eventually became the most familiar animal cells in course of time, with their cytoplasm, nuclei and organelles all enveloped within an excellent fatty membrane.
Transition from individual to colony
However, the large transition instant from individual to colony comes when two bees within a colony engage themselves in a division of labor. Labor of first division is most likely to happen when one insect reproduces and the other cares for her offspring instead of taking the opportunity in reproducing herself. She seems to sacrifice her capability to reproduce for the sole objective of larger good of the growing colony. This fundamental division occurs between a reproductive caste and a worker caste.
Colony societies or superorganisms thus, evolve when some individuals sacrifice their reproductive rights and create a division of labor. This scenario is frequently a response to environmental pressures, such as the requirement to store food from a lot of sources and protect against many enemies at one time. Colonies merely stay alive because they are fitter than individuals in such environments, and there seems to be examples of colony organisms gradually developing back into individuals when the environment resumes back. Nevertheless, in some ways humans happen to be already colony organisms.
In all these social systems, a division of labor seems to be general; and just the once this was evolutionarily rendered, it turned out to be extremely successful. This is approved for almost any society, and once they attain a high division of labor, they seem to have huge successes due to division of labor. The second thing is that, on one occasion a society becomes more or less like an organism, it becomes very firmly organized.
Life organization
Possibly, the first thing that an individual would make an observation about how life is organized, even further elemental than species groupings, is that life is cleaved into organisms. The organism is considered to be as elemental to biology as cities or firms are to economics, or molecules to chemistry. In this context, it should be said that explanation of organismality should therefore, be an essential task of biology.
Every organism has various adaptations, which are aimed for the purpose of the growth, maturity and reproduction of that organism (and quite often its kin). The essentiality of organismality lies in this joint motive; the parts function together for the incorporated whole, with high collaboration and very little divergence.
Societies with complicated mixtures of collaboration and divergence have sophisticated cooperation that includes cooperative brood care, food sharing, group defense and nest building of the offspring of one or some group members. Yet, they are also moved by divergence. The reproductive point seems to be coveted and subordinates are required to be kept in place, quite often forcefully or the fear of force. Other supportive breeders have different ranges of collaboration and divergence. Humans lie in this category and are the most promising cooperators. A human city is notably further more cooperative and integrated, compared to groupings of some other species.
References
Newitz, A. (2012). Could Humans Evolve into a Giant Hive Mind? Evolution. Retrieved website
http://io9.com/5891143/could-humans-evolve-into-a-giant-hive-mind
Queller, D.C., Strassmann, J.E. (2009). Beyond society: the evolution of organismality. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 364 (1533): 3143-3155. Retrieved website http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/364/1533/3143.full
Anonymous. Retrieved website http://www.amazon.in/The-Superorganism-Elegance-Strangeness-Societies/dp/0393067041
