This is a layman observation. Was just reading about the C-Elegans worm atlas and it's feeling like this "bottom up" studying of brains will yeild more insight into how brains get built and operate, than studying the human brain which just seems massively more complex. These things are specs of dust.
And having spent enough time as a kid using honey to get the local colony to line up in various formations I am looking forward to programmable colonies.
Could a colony of ants form its own self-awareness? Do we understand enough about consciousness/awareness to know what the difference is between an ant network and say, a network of neurons?