The abundance, biomass, and distribution of ants on Earth

We use most of the Earth's dry surface to feed ... What ever that picture shows.

Disclaimer: I did not check their math, but it is in the right ball park.

[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/theydidthemath/comments/p0qws3/self...

(spoilers) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books_of_Blood#%22In_the_Hills...

I was thinking 100,000 range tops. They real are tiny.

I find awe in the way they interact and accomplish tasks as a whole colony that would be impossible for any single individual. And how some species have developed complex, specialized behaviours from the various Acromyrmex species that farm fungi or the genus of Solenopsis that build bridges over water. And they're fascinating to watch!

The idea that a single individual may not have the neurological framework to manage these complex behaviours that enable colonies to remember and optimize paths to sources of food over time is fascinating.

Formica Rufus! They have a caste system of workers. They farm aphids and plants, they have hunters, and they have builders. They build huge mounts out of deciduous and coniferous plant material around fallen trees. And yet rigid seeming as they are there have been observations where individuals within a caste that prefer certain kinds of tasks over others.

I really like spiders too but ants were my first fascination and I still really enjoy them. My kids and I love to catch and identify queens of various species in our area during nuptial flights. It's a lot of fun... sort of like real-like Pokemon.

So while a 6'x6' space isn't a lot, you could fit the whole population of the earth in just one area with plenty of room around each person.

I think politics and greed are a bigger cause of starvation and pollution than population size.

No one decides about it for now, like we do for other invasive species, but we should probably start considering regulating ourselves

And that's how the Windows Update team was selected /s

Also Edison, General Electric early on (like lightbulb era), had (according to one source, but it makes sense) like a prototype of an IQ test, tested memory and general knowledge. Basically how much you had read. By that point America had ample libraries thanks to Carnegie, so it was fair, before that there was no way.

Makes sense since Edison and Gates dropped out. And back then college dropouts were too educated, so for instance JP Morgan did a year in college, traveled a bit and that completed his education. I dropped out recently (technically an impasse, glitch meant I couldn't enroll again) and with that my education is complete. But back then? Dude nobody finished high school, Ford didn't, Wright Brothers said eh, like back then if you went to college you were badly overeducated.

So the "how many piano tuners are there in Chicago" question is a sanitized version of "how many kilotons of TNT did this nuclear bomb yield?". Fermi problem, I think it's called, and Fermi was great at it, got it to within a factor of 2. Wright Brothers also nailed it very well, like got 1% margins on admittedly easier math than the bomb, but with their other invention, the wind tunnel, and very very low resources initially. So the piano tuners sounds like a stupid question, otherwise it would require that special nuke clearance, get real. And it's the same thought process.