> It is helpful to think of the whole colony as a singular organism as opposed to individuals, because our understanding of individual starts breaking down at these levels
Can't the organisms be viewed as individuals with a shared common goal.
> It is helpful to think of the whole colony as a singular organism as opposed to individuals, because our understanding of individual starts breaking down at these levels
Can't the organisms be viewed as individuals with a shared common goal.
Maybe.
The workers are involuntary but willing participants, in a grand scheme where the queens and males get to create new generations. But this is possible only if we anthropomorphise a lot.
because at the level of ants/bees I'm not even sure what "individual" even means.
But genetically they originate from the same individual, live for the betterment of the whole, and have very minor say in what happens to themselves or their genes. Much similar to cells in a human being does.
I've heard some bee species vote, though. (not sure if true)
I think you can argue it either way. Either one is trying to map human concepts onto non-human existence and that's an inherently muddy process. What does "individual" really mean, anyway...
Indeed. They are individual organisms, not one large organism. Talk of "superorganisms" seems to presuppose that each individual must seek his own survival and reproduction, but that's untrue. From the point of view of the species and its propagation and survival, it is not a question of individuals. That's just one strategy that may characterize the reproductive behavior of some species, but not others.
No. Neither ant colonies nor individual ants have goals.
Their goal is to ensure the survival of the colony and establish new colonies
That is a category mistake--neither individual ants nor ant colonies know anything at all about such things. They aren't the sorts of entities that can have such goals. Those things are consequences of their behavior, but their behavior is established by evolution--genes that produce behaviors that result in survival of those genes into the future are retained, those that don't perish. Nothing in this picture has goals, only consequences.