The upstart queen can replace the main queen if she dies, yeah. Queens produce a pheromone that triggers the killing of upstart queens. In the absence of a queen, an upstart queen can survive and take over.
The idea with cancer being selfish comes from an idea of organisms functioning at different levels of organization. Single-celled organisms, colonial microorganisms, multicellular life, social animals, larger societies, civilizations, ecosystems, the whole planet.
Perhaps one day we may colonize other planets and form yet another, higher level of organization. How it will function is still to be discovered but I think selfishness of individual units is always a potential.
The upstart queen can replace the main queen if she dies, yeah. Queens produce a pheromone that triggers the killing of upstart queens. In the absence of a queen, an upstart queen can survive and take over.
This makes sense. From the hive’s point of view, there are at least two ways to ensure there is always a queen:
always birth upstart-queen but kill them so long as the active queen is still alive. Once the active queen is sick or dead, an upstart queen will take over.
Only birth an upstart-queen when the active queen is sick and about to die.
Since the latter is more risky e.g. active queen might die before birthing a new queen, the hive goes with the former strategy.
The idea with cancer being selfish comes from an idea of organisms functioning at different levels of organization. Single-celled organisms, colonial microorganisms, multicellular life, social animals, larger societies, civilizations, ecosystems, the whole planet.
I’ve had similar thoughts regarding the “scope” of an organism. How human individuals think of themselves as separate from other humans but the earth might think of humanity as a single organism.
The upstart queen can replace the main queen if she dies, yeah. Queens produce a pheromone that triggers the killing of upstart queens. In the absence of a queen, an upstart queen can survive and take over.
The idea with cancer being selfish comes from an idea of organisms functioning at different levels of organization. Single-celled organisms, colonial microorganisms, multicellular life, social animals, larger societies, civilizations, ecosystems, the whole planet.
Perhaps one day we may colonize other planets and form yet another, higher level of organization. How it will function is still to be discovered but I think selfishness of individual units is always a potential.
This makes sense. From the hive’s point of view, there are at least two ways to ensure there is always a queen:
Since the latter is more risky e.g. active queen might die before birthing a new queen, the hive goes with the former strategy.
I’ve had similar thoughts regarding the “scope” of an organism. How human individuals think of themselves as separate from other humans but the earth might think of humanity as a single organism.