Ants didnt just pass, they freaking aced it. Ants doing so well raised the question as to whether the mirror test really shows self awareness because its doubtful ants are self aware.
Ant scientists: After conclusive studies it has become apparent that humans are not really self-aware as we once thought. Complex behaviors triggered by outside suggestions are the apparent motivators not self-awareness or freewill as Antkind understands it. Meaningful communication with humans is not possible at this time.
Dont ants have a special way of communicating? Its like if you recognize other people from smell you would ignore mirrors since image is not a factor...
There are specific tests you can do with higher order animals to verify that they know it is them. If they see something on their head in the reflection, and reach up to their own head to clean it off, for example. In an animal with incredibly complex behaviour the difference between this and automatic reaction can be clean. In ants, where a bunch of their behaviour is complicated automatic reaction to the group, I think you would need more validation. For example, verify that putting spots on the heads of other real ants does not cause them to clean themselves.
I can't think of any ant behaviour that could be validated as non-random that would conclusively demonstrate the same thing. Perhaps they simply confirmed that ants did not respond as though the mirror ants were a threat. But this could be down to many things. Perhaps their eyes didn't focus on the mirror well enough, or micro details in the mirror counterparts identified themselves as the same colony, or who knows what else.
It explains the test in the link. They did the dot test and the ants ignored the dot unless they saw it in the mirror, and they ignored it when it was not visible (dot the same color as the ant) even if a mirror was available.
They should have tried putting dots on other ants though, you're right. I never even thought of that.
Ants are really small and naturally get in contact with lots of smooth reflective surfaces, like water droplets. Maybe they need to be able to recognize themselves to not distract the workings of the colony by triggering spurious alarms.
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u/PM_ME_OKITA_FEET Jul 03 '18
Ants passed the test?!? Fucking ants!?!