Extraterrestrial beings are always full of mystery to earthlings, and we are curious about their way of thinking, and even more curious about their sensory world. Alien beings that have adapted to different planetary environments may have sensory systems that are very different from ours. For example, on a dimly lit planet, evolving a built-in sonar system is clearly more practical for them than visual.

As a result, alien beings may have a completely different way of sentiencing than we do, but they can also dominate their planet. So, how is the society of extraterrestrial beings constructed? What is their collective mindset? The answer may lie in our daily lives.

The human brain is like an intricate network of railways, with hundreds of millions of connections formed as neurons develop. It is this highly complex system that gives rise to the incredible ability of human beings to think. But is it true for intelligent life on other planets? What if the neural networks of alien creatures were scattered among individuals?

尼吉爾·法蘭克斯教授正致力於解答這些問題，他研究的物件是地球上分佈最廣泛的生物之一：昆蟲。通過對螞蟻長達三十年的細緻觀察，法蘭克斯教授見證了一個又一個令人驚喜的實驗成果。如今，我們對螞蟻的認知已經遠超往常。

When ants gather in swarms, they form a super-individual, a large and intelligent collective of many tiny and not-so-intelligent individuals. The way ants communicate with each other is particularly unique, allowing the colony to function in a brain-like manner.

In order to uncover the workings of this "brain", Professor Franks devised a series of experiments that forced the ants to find a new home. He removed a swarm of ants from their nest and destroyed their home, forcing them to find a new place to live. He then provided two different nests for the ants to choose from. One nest is bright and has an open entrance, while the other is darker and has a narrow entrance. The results showed that ants had a clear preference for the latter.

In the process of choosing a new home, the ants carefully evaluate various factors, including the height of the ceiling, the living area, the width of the room, and the number of entrances. They also avoid nests with potential health problems, such as corpses left behind by former residents. When an ant finds a nest, he returns to the colony to find a companion and leads him to check it out. In this way, through one pass after another, the number of ants in the colony gradually increases until the so-called quorum is reached, and the final decision is made to adopt the nest.

Computer scientist James Marshall used Professor Franks' research to create a complex model that simulates ants' decision-making processes. By chance, he discovered another similar computer simulation, the primate brain decision-making model carried out by his colleagues in Pristown. In their exchanges, it was found that although one is an ant colony and the other is a primate brain, they are strikingly similar in their decision-making mechanisms.

James Marshall discovered that in the superorganism of the ant colony, the role of a single ant resembles that of a neuron in the brain. Ant colonies have a unique way of gathering information, as each individual does not have to have complete information about the environment, but rather makes decisions by gradually accumulating and aggregating them at the colony level. Similar to neurons in the brain, ants alone may not have the whole picture, but when they are gathered in large numbers, they can get enough information as a whole.

So, the question arises: if there is enough time, can the colony develop consciousness? Do they already have some form of consciousness? When solving problems, humans tend to simulate various possible scenarios in their brains, plan courses of action, and predict outcomes. Ants, on the other hand, are directly involved in solving problems.

Although ant colonies are capable of accomplishing tasks beyond the capabilities of an individual, their thinking seems to be limited to what is in front of them. They lack self-awareness and imagination, which is perhaps a trait that the insects of the earth do not have. For extraterrestrial insects, these properties may be true, but on Earth, we have not observed similar phenomena.