Essay about Of Ants and Terrorists

Within any community, it is safe to say that the goal of maintaining a society that prospers on for many years is common. Establishing order is key to developing a prosperous society. Order, whether it be defined as assigning roles in society, or establishing a set of rules to maintain control, can be done through various approaches. The pondering question however lies in what is the best approach to establish order. This common question has been prominent throughout time, and has been debated in government and society. The debate in how society should establish order regularly results in contrasting opinions. In the essay "The Myth of the Ant Queen," by Steven Johnson, and in the excerpt “The Code of Hammurabi” from Society and Law in Ancient Babylonia, two distinct approaches to establishing order in society are discussed. I believe that through strict reinforcements, order in society can be established. In the essay “Man’s Nature is Evil” by Hsun Tzu, the human nature in society helps explain why strict reinforcements is the most efficient way to establish order. In Steven Johnson’s essay “The Myth of the Ant Queen,” he describes an interesting way in how the establishment of order arises. He argues that society can build itself up and maintain order without the need of a ruler or a set of laws. Through the observation of ants and how they behave in their environment, he explains how ants are able to establish an intricate yet simple

In the Prologue of Black Ants and Buddhist, the teacher is always engaging her students with real-world situations and meaningful conversations where the students all seem to be comfortable voicing their own opinion. With the discussion led in her classroom children could hear from other perspectives, which I believe will make the students more empathic and understanding to others beliefs and opinions. With the ant situation the children were able to come to an agreement and also a way to prevent ants from invading the classroom again. I loved how this situation was handled and how the children led most of the conversation with such maturity! I hope one day I will be able to manage my classroom with such

In chapter 9 of the book Black Ants and Buddhists it talks about the different situations that families and teachers may encounter inside and outside a classroom setting. One of the situations that it talks about in this chapter is about different types of families and their origins. Talking to students about their families it might be challenging because as a future teacher we might not know what is their situation or who is taking care of them. For instance, last year when I worked in a school I told a student that his mom and dad would be so proud to see that he had made a 100 in the test. I noticed that he was upset when I told him that, he later on told me that he lives with his grandma, I felt bad for the entire day because I didn’t

“The Electric Ant” is a science fiction short story written by Philip K. Dick and published in 1969. In this setting, the story takes place in a distant alternative universe. Mankind’s identity and freedom are being questioned in this futuristic society. Indeed, the plot explores the identity of a protagonist who has been disconnected from reality after an accident, by being transformed into an organic robot. A being that is no longer human despite having the skin, the flesh and the physical body of a man. The story focuses on the shift of reality perceived by an organic robot. Nevertheless, it brings us a closer look at how the perspective of reality is approached from the point of view of a sub-social class. As the story goes on, the protagonist becomes more and more obsessed with his individuality and true freedom. The plot emphasis on the development of the main character’s identity throughout the story.

Establishing nonhierarchical roles within a system is often debated as an efficient method for internal innovation and stability. In Steve Johnson’s essay “Myth of the Ant Queen,” Johnson describes a phenomena known as emergent behavior, “large patterns of uncoordinated local actions” which is prevalent in systems with nonhierarchial roles (199). The concept of emergent behavior is a useful, however inaccurate, means of categorizing a system’s structure; a self-organizing system must have some origin or initial degree of coordination or organization in order to properly function. Furthermore, Cathy Davidson’s essay “Project Classroom Makeover,” challenges the current educational paradigm with an administrative and societal call-to-action through the iPod experiment.

While technology is commonly thought of as inventions and gadgets, anything that humans have developed for specific purposes or to accomplish certain goals, such as methods or models, must also be correctly categorized as such. In Cathy Davidson’s essay “Project Classroom Makeover,” she discusses a few unconventional forms of technology such as the educational classroom paradigm and standardization. Similarly, in Steve Johnson’s essay “The Myth of the Ant Queen,” he presents procedural technology, such as self-organizing systems, and conceptual technology, collaborative intelligence. He then utilizes another conceptual form of technology, the complexity theory, to interpret these systems’ seemingly uncoordinated patterns. Sherry Turkle branches off of Davidson and Johnson’s ideas by discussing the consequences of questioning what makes a robot alive in her essay “Alone Together.” This narrative highlights the technology’s effect on humans and the reality of robots either improving or diminishing an individual’s quality of life. Besides the slight apprehension of its future usage, humans are mesmerized by the promising potential technology presents. Additionally, structural or paradigmatic technology is deeply intertwined and inherent within society’s functioning, making it impossible to separate technology from human existence.

Fear, the emotion that shows whether you're a ‘fighter’ or a ‘flyer’. The books “Most dangerous game” written by Richard Connell and “Leiningen Versus the Ants” by Carl Stephenson both use the theme ‘fear’ in their short stories. In ‘MDG’ the book puts man against man, but the book ‘LVA’ pits Man versus Beasts. The three questions I'll be answering today will be, How fear’s enlivening and weakening elements are evident in ‘MDG’, How fear’s enlivening and weakening elements are evident in ‘LVA’ and I'll also be dealing with the fact of how LVA and MDG both deal with the idea of fear and how it's enlivening and weakening.

It is clear that there are many things that shape people’s identity. It could be family, surrounding, culture and many other things. These things help people to become who they are and affect the way they see the world around them. The question what shapes the identity is discussed in the works “Selection from love 2.0: How our Supreme Emotion Affects Everything We Feel, Think, Do, and Become” by Barbara Frederickson, “The Naked Citadel” by Susan Faludi, and “The Myth of the Ant Queen” by Steven Johnson. The authors view this question from different perspectives. However, there is one common thing that could be seen in all the three works. The authors prove that person’s identity is mostly shaped by interaction with other people and the

In 2012, 16259 people in the United States were murdered and another 1.8 million people were sent to the hospital due to assault. Humans resorting to violence and harming others is a daily occurrence, but why? Is it in our nature, are we instinctively violent, and why is it that these acts are not only happening in the United States but worldwide. Although the average person does not leave their home planning on harming somebody that day, under the right circumstances almost every single person in this world will commit an act of violence. Sometimes these acts are justified, such as when we are trying to protect ourselves or a loved one, but what about the smaller acts that we all do every day.

It is important to realize and clarify that there is a difference between ISIS and Muslims. According to the Muslim faith, Islam, we do not condone any killings. In the Quran there are many verses that speak about how bad it is to kill any soul that talks, walks, or crawls. One verse in particular that always stands out to me because of the society we live in now is, “…If any one killed a person, it would be as if he killed the whole of mankind; and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole of mankind…” - The Holy Quran (Chapter Five, Verse 32). Even with a small killing of a butterfly or an ant is not permitted. The reason you, or anyone should care is because you live in as society where all cultures and religions are integrated into one society. America is very diverse, and especially New York, where we live in. Muslims work with everyone in the community, and it is important to differentiate who are the real Muslims are, verses the ones who use our religion as a disguise. For this essay, I used two major news outlets, which are, FOX news and CNN (among a few more). I chose those two in particular because it speaks about the republican views on these political issues that are roaring in America.

Though tiny and seemingly insignificant, ants can overwhelm a property before you know it. Their miniature size lets them infiltrate your home through cracks and crevices that you may not even see. Once inside a structure, they build widespread colonies and leave scent trails for their companions to follow. Because of their rapid colonization and lingering chemical trails, a few measly ants can turn into a stubborn infestation in a matter of hours,

I am constantly reminded of the verses of David; who observed the natural world around him and found its creator, God. In Psalm 8, the psalmist wrote:

Technology has tremendously changed human social behavior, which has provided a convenient way for people to communicate and collaborate with each other. For instance, Cathy Davidson, the author of “Project Classroom Makeover,” points out, there is a need to renew the current education system so that it meets the new expectation of the digital era. She discusses how technology improves social interaction when students work collectively through crowdsourcing. In “The Myth of the Ant Queen,” Steven Johnson provides the example of the complex systems in ant colonies, cities of Manchester and Internet by emphasizing the importance of collective working that intelligence emerges when people work together. On the other side, Sherry Turkle argues that technology has turned human beings become isolated. In her article “Alone Together: Why We Expect A Lot from Technology and Less from Each Other,” she discusses how humanity is transformed into a “robotic’ moment due to technology. Therefore, technology does not only help to form collective learning and social interaction that can provide an adequate platform for sharing social values, but also isolate people from each other if they rely too much on technology.

Ants and Artists Culture has helped shape human development and form some of the most prominent societies and groups in today’s world. A definition of culture would be the way ones goes about their life that is impacted by the surroundings they live in. One of these societies that culture has helped formed in the fine art world that is discussed in the book The Painted Word by Tom Wolfe. The culture these artists have are specific to them and have many social norms and rules. While it would seem like humans are the only things capable of something as complicated as culture, ants seem to have culture as well.

Does Leiningen have a good or bad characteristics for putting his workers in harm's way? Is what many people question throughout the story “Leiningen Versus the Ants.” The protagonist in Carl Stephenson’s short story, Leiningen, has a variety of good and bad characteristics finding himself, his workers, and his worker’s family in danger.