And some might say “but the hive itself doesn’t have consciousness, or an ‘experience’”. Which is impossible for you to know, unless you are (or have been) a hive.
Re:The Grayness of the Origin of Life
by BurningFrog on Friday July 23, 2021 @11:22PM
(#27938139)
If you attack the hive, it definitely defends itself. It looks for food, etc...
It is popular to admire the selfless ants or bees who willingly give their lives for their society.
But if you think of them as cells of an organism, that happens in every living being.
When you see a hive sacrificing itself, we can talk :)
This is an example of the greyness that the article discusses. If hives are to be seen as distinct life, it will be quite close to the end of a spectrum.
The end of the spectrum is probably more at thinking of human cities as distinct life forms.
The individual insects in a hive are typically 75% identical genetically.