Translated material
Ant "philosophical ship"
One hundred years ago, in the fall of 1922, an operation began on the expulsion of prominent representatives of the intelligentsia from Soviet Russia. Recently, biologists took advantage of the Metaphor of the Philosophical Steamboat (it was invented by Sergey Khostyu, a theoretical physicist, philosopher and translator Joyce), describing the experience with ants at the Institute of Systematics and Ecology of Animals of Animals of the SB RAS in Novosibirsk. It turned out that the anthill dies if the “intellectuals” are taken from it. About who in the anthill is the most intelligent and whether it is possible to draw parallels between the human and ant society, we talked with Zhanna Reznikova, Dokt. Biol. sciences, professor of NSU, head. Laboratory of behavioral ecology of the Hesiezh community.
"Carefully make lists"
In the fall of 1922, engineers, economists, doctors, writers, journalists, lawyers, philosophers were expelled from the RSFSR - and members of their families ... September 29, N. A. Berdyaev, S. L. Frank, I. A. Ilyin, B. P. Vysheslavtsev, M. A. Osorgin, and many, on board the ship “Oberburghmister Haken” sailed to Germany. other. On November 16, the ship "Prussia" will take away by N. O. Losssky, L. P. Karsavin, I. I. Lapshin, A. A. Kizvetter and other famous thinkers.
The idea of sending the “fifth column” of that time, Vladimir Lenin put forward abroad. In his directive, he noted: “Continue steadily the expulsion of the active anti -Soviet intelligentsia abroad. Carefully make lists. There should be a matter for each intellectual ... ”
Even before the Soviet authorities adopted by the administrative deportion on the train, the leaders of Pomgol (the commission of assistance to the starving ones) were sent from the country, then the country was forced to leave the participants of the II All -Russian Congress of Medical Sects and the sections of the doctors of all -people (actively talking about the problem of hunger in the country). And after their departure of the GPU, the lists of objectionable ones compiled: Moscow contained 67 surnames, Petrogradsky - 51, Ukrainian - 77. Some of these people were saved by petitions of various departments or famous people, some went to the northern provinces, the rest left Russia with their families. How many of them were not known: some of the names are duplicated, the lists are not divided into the remaining in the country and expelled abroad.
What did Russia lose a hundred years ago? Did the “philosophical ship” change our story? Is it worth it to worry about the “brain leak” today? What is the next wave of emigration for Russia? Unfortunately, history does not tolerate subjunctive mood. And most serious scientists are trying not to engage in forecasts.
Meanwhile, oddly enough, the experience with the "leakage of ant", albeit by accident, was held in Novosibirsk in the laboratory of Zhanna Reznikova.
Ant language
Ants are amazing creatures. These insects forever melting underfoot, as it turned out, have their own agriculture (they grow mushrooms in their homes), their livestock breeding (ants protect aphids and collect “sweet milk” from them), they are waging wars, some of them are ready to capture prisoners into slavery, they successfully use “chemical weapons” and lay out the corpses of relatives on the border.
Professor Reznikova is a world -famous scientist who discovered the world "Language of ants." Jeanne Reznikov sees one of the reasons for the success of his research in a new approach. Most scientists considered the anthill before her as a single “super -horganism”. Each ant was seen as a small screw of a complex system. And they tried to study primarily the functioning of the entire colony as a whole. With this approach, the average reaction of the group is analyzed to the threat of attack, a sharp change in the environment, general research activity in the search for food or new territories, etc. Jeanne Ilyinichna studied the personal qualities of her wards.
In order to prove that the ants have his own language, Jeanne Reznikova, together with an information specialist in the theory of information, Boris Ryabko came up with a very elegant experiment 1 . They created a special maze, which called the "binary tree." All the branches of this labyrinth ended with empty feeders, and only one contained syrup. After contacting the anti-reconnaissance ants with his group in a laboratory nest, scientists have been isolated for a while so that he could not conduct his comrades personally. The maze was replaced so that the ants could not mark the road with pheromones. That is, the scout could only “tell” the foragers where to go.
General view of the experiment. In the residential part of the arena is a transparent nest, at the moment closed. Ants can fall into the working part of the arena through a removable bridge, which passes to the labyrinth "binary tree" only a working group. So that the ants could not fall immediately on any sheet, the labyrinth is placed in a ditch with water. In order to avoid the use of a odorous trace, the labyrinth is replaced at a time when the intelligence officer leaves to communicate with his team of foragers 
The team of foragers goes to the target after information contact with the scout 
So they apply an individual mark on the ant“It looks like a well -known bee dance language,” Zhanna Reznikova explains. - But, as we see now, it is still more complicated and interesting.
The fact is that the researchers measured the time that the scout spent on his “story”, and thus could evaluate the speed of information transmission (which turned out to be an order of magnitude lower than the human), and the connection of this speed with the complexity of the message. So it was possible to open other characteristics of ant communications that are present in the human language.
If you have to describe the road “right and right and right”, you, of course, say just “four turns to the right” if the path was a little more complicated-“right, right, right, right-head”, then in this case you reduce your message: “right-naval, and so three times”. In both cases, the description of the path in the second version of the presentation will take you much less time. And it turned out that if there was a pattern in the route, then ants transmitted this information faster.
In addition, on the example of a labyrinth, similar to a comb-hare, even more interesting features of an ant language were found 2 . For example, it turned out that if you leave the bait more often on a certain cloak, then ants begin to talk faster about its position. As if we had given this clip some special name.
But only anti-reconnaissance ants can reduce the explanation, noticing patterns in the location of the bait. If a forage finds the bait, he will not be able to explain to his comrades where exactly she is. He is only able to follow the instructions of the scout.
The “personal approach” continued to bear fruit. The Reznikova group consciously chose red forest ants, in which externally ants of different professions do not differ. For many types of ants, soldiers have a powerful head with strong stars, nannies - microscopic dimensions, etc. In such species, the profession is predetermined "by birth." And if outwardly everyone looks the same?
He chose a profession or is it - him?
On the eve of the school year, my social networks always teem in advertising of various children's courses. Their organizers promise to raise a leader from my child, develop mathematical abilities, teach to draw or think creatively. Involuntarily there is a suspicion that any abilities are the issue of zeal and financial viability of parents. The choice of a profession for our children is always an unstable balance of many factors: natural talents, an idea of the prestige of a particular profession, the influence of the social environment, including charismatic teachers and friends, etc.
Anthill of red forest ants 
Artificial world (imitation of a herbal, trunk of a tree, refuge under a stone)In the study of ants, methods that are impossible with children are available. In the laboratory of Reznikova, they studied how the professions of ants are formed with dated age, grown from dolls in the laboratory. For this, the researchers invented for the ants “artificial world” containing models that imitate their natural environment: thick grass, shelters, underground passages. In such conditions, one can quantify the research activity of ants and trace how “interest” to different aspects of life will be associated with their future profession. Especially interested in scientists, the formation of aggressiveness 3 ants 3 .
In the experiment, they used the natural enemy of ants - a predatory elder.
“The level of aggression against a living enemy is a reliable indicator of choosing a future profession,” says Reznikova. - After all, the guard must rush to the enemy without reasoning. We have a photo with ants whose beetz has already bitten off the abdomen, and half the ant continues to run after the enemy and bite him. It was then that the natural inclinations of the combat profession affected. They appear in red forest ants quite early - already at the age of two weeks. The artificial worlds do not interest them - only enemies. Of the objects, they are only interested in those that you can climb and accept the combat pose. On the contrary, the future collectors of the Padi aphids explore both the models of the grass stand and different moves, but in relation to the enemy they show reasonable caution.
In the course of joint experiments with the Research Institute of Physical and Chemical Biology. Belozersky Moscow State University Kand. Biol. Sciences Natalya Acarkina, Jeanne Reznikova and Cand. Biol. The sciences Ivan Yakovlev decided to specifically explore the scouts - so to speak, create a psychological portrait of this group and see how this profession 4 is formed. This experiment took place in two stages. At first it was necessary to identify scouts, and for this they conducted experiments with a binary tree and identified those who showed a tendency to exchange information with relatives. Then they carried out the entire set of testing with representatives of different professions: scouts, Padi collectors, hunters and guards. The labyrinth was also included in the test series, in which the ants had to find a way out to get home. Muravyov was compared in terms of all indicators - just as adolescents who are testing for professional orientation. Well, we already know about the guards: they do not need neither the mind nor research activity, only high aggressiveness is needed. Padi's collectors have a good memory, learning abilities and high research activity. The scouts showed the highest intelligence and, as jokingly noticed by Reznikova’s colleagues at international conferences, a tendency to ADHD: they, unlike representatives of other professions, constantly switch from one subject to another. When meeting with the enemy, the scouts behaved in moderation bravely, but carefully: although they “jumped” on the beetle, they never entered into dangerous contact. Ants of such a profession in an anthill are only about 1-2%, so the researchers called them an "intellectual elite." In separate experiments, Reznikova tried to find out how an ant becomes a scout. This is immeasurably more difficult than tracing the professional path of the guard, because there are so few scouts. Nevertheless, the answer was obtained: these qualities also appear at a very early age. And if the work -working “scout - foragers” to deprive them of their leader, then from their midst they will not “bring him up”, but will look for whom to be nailed.
Anthill without intellectuals
Scientists did not plan to deprive the anthill of the “intellectual elite”.
- In order to explore the features of the scouts, we put them into a separate nest to another arena, they fed them, they took one at a time for testing and returned there. Carried away by the experiment, we did not immediately notice that the basic nest soon was left without scouts. Of course, the basic nest continued to feed, supported the necessary humidity. But having lost the elite, the colony began to refuse food and barricaded in her nest. At first, some still went out for food and fed the rest. But then a total boycott came. Insects began to die out.
In other laboratory colonies, from where the scouts were not seized, no problems were observed. By the time, the scientists noticed the alarming behavior of the colony participating in the experiment, almost half of the ants had already died out there. The colony could not be saved, despite all the efforts of scientists.
Of course, we must make a reservation that this experiment was unintentional, was not repeated and even brought to the end. However, the world knows about unfinished experiments included in modern textbooks (Stanford prison experiment, for example).
Professor Reznikova listens to my parallels between the world of the ant and man and warns against direct comparisons.
- People and ants not only belong to different branches of the animal kingdom (primary and secondary)- we also have different social systems. Ants belong to eusocial animals, which, among other things, have a strict separation of reproductive functions. I'm afraid trying to answer the question of similarity, we will not go beyond superficial analogies.
Looking at my disappointed face, Professor Reznikova with a smile adds that nevertheless the “philosophical ship of ants” is not just a fairy tale containing a hint.
- The difference between us may not be as great as it seems. The community of the mechanisms of the social behavior of animals and people probably lies very deeply. So, recently, a fundamental similarity of the neurochemical basis of search behavior in bees and mammals, including humans, was discovered. One can only be surprised at the striking similarity of the laws that manifest in the organization of society among representatives of such distant evolutionary branches.
Julia Black
Photo from the archive of the laboratory of Zhanna Reznikova
1 Reznikova J., Ryabko B. Analysis of the language of ants methods of information theory // Problem. Inform ., 22: 3 (1986), 103–108; Problems Inform. Transmission, 22: 3 (1986), 245–249.
2 Reznikova Z., & Ryabko B. (2011). Numerical Competence in Animals, with an Insight from Ants // Behaviur, 148 (4), 405–434. jstor.org/stable/23034327
3 Reznikova Z., & Dorosheva E. (2013). Catalog Learning: Carabid Beetles Learn to Manipulate with Innate Coherent Behavioral Patterns // Evolutionary Psychology , 11 (3). doi.org/10.1177/147470491301100304
4 Reznikova Z. Spatial Cognition in the Context of Fraining Styles and Information Transfer in Ants // Anim Cogn 23, 1143–1159 (2020). doi.org/10.1007/s10071-020-01423-x