quorum sensing

the art of quorum sensing

There’s something in the way that bacteria like Vibrio fischeri come together to make light. It’s as if evolution knew the value of community before we did.

In all orders of biology, it seems that there is some mechanism in place for collective activism that ultimately benefits the community/colony/herd, whatever. There’s processionary caterpillars that walk in endless conga lines to appear as a bigger being when moving from one home to another. There’s starling murmurations. Beyond linguistic communication, collective action is undeniably an inherent program that all living species are programmed to carry out.

Something I’m trying to get at here is whether or not we as humans have maintained any of these behaviors, or if we’ve strayed too far in the name of individualism (or is it intraspecies competition). But intraspecies competition is not unique… and actually, a lot of these communal behaviors are a response to external stress… which also makes intraspecies competition more likely. So there is morality happening here as well; I can continue to fight for the limited resources for the sake of my own survival, or I can unify myself with my group in order to benefit the collective.

Yeah, I think we’ve lost sight this instinct a while ago.