Can form treaties with ants to stay out of my kitchen in exchange for sugar cubes
Ants develop anti-poison technology
Ants identify humans as source of poison and begin formulating counter attacks
Ants identify humans as source of food and begin worshipping them
Discworld/Children of Time style computers → less dependence on rare earth metals
Ants begin taking out poison factories
Ants begin raiding poison factories to use on other bugs
Massive decrease in ant predators, as ants organize to take them down → increase in other insects eaten by those predators. Spider in SimAnt taken down instantly
Ants used as spies in war → new and better pesticides, ant proofing, and ant detection
Necrocolony in chernobyl begins biting other colonies and turning them into zombies
That species of ant in Europe that’s all one giant supercolony learns to distinguish between colonies and thus war is returned.
Giant increase in funding for studying ants → I regret not going to grad school to study eusocial insects now that it’s both interesting and profitable
Ants can be hired to do microcleaning, Disney-style.
Microconstruction takes off as ants are used as construction labor
Ants weather proof their shelter
Ants get good at hiding their colonies, but you can hire ants to find other ant colonies.
Ant chemical detectors, similar to the bee detectors we have now.
Huge debate about the morality of ant farms
Ants can coordinate to have a single item carried by many at once.
Ants develop heating and cooling systems for their colonies, expanding their possible range.
Ants discover global warming and develop carbon sink technology, we are all saved.
Ants develop eugenics program leading to super ants.
Ants learn to conglomerate into large shapes, can act as humanoid → competing with humans for jobs. They are treated like illegal immigrants.
Ants recognize nuclear war as threat, organize worldwide campaign to disable all nukes simultaneously
Ants recognize nuclear war as awesome for them because it kills their smartest predators, organize worldwide simultaneous launch.
Process of uplifting teaches humans about the development of intelligence → brings about or prevents UFAI.
Process of uplifting teaches humans about the development of intelligence → terrorists and governments uplift other animals to be used as spies. Every animal becomes suspect, biome is nuked and paved.
Ant art becomes possible and trendy, creating an art bubble that eventually pops. Art colonies then left to starve to death as their work is no longer valuable.
Ants as watch dogs: learn to identify family members and trip alarm if someone comes in without one of them. Fire ants used as full guard dogs.
Ants used to clean infected wounds and do microsurgeries.
Jains and other sects that honor insect life become smug and righteous, leverage into better treatment for all insects just in case.
No construction can take place without an Ant Impact Statement. Ants become new construction chokepoint, get rich off of NIMBY bribes.
Ant digging abilities used to find treasure.
Ants replace mine rats.
Ants employed to keep public areas clean. Parks, beaches, etc become way less disgusting.
Ants used for simple home automation, like pet feeders.
Beautiful ant farms placed in museums, later looked back on as akin to when we displayed humans in zoos.
Ant colonies develop mental illnesses. They are made hopelessly worse by human psychologists. Ant psychologists become a thing.
Ratatouille but with ants
[redacted]
Ants take over contagious-disease medical care, as they can’t possibly get sick from a human disease. Human doctors and nurses very upset about this, attempt to block with protests and strikes but that just accelerate ant dominance.
Movie about child with ant colony best friend.
Ant-facing businesses become the hot new thing, billions invested in tiny furniture, nicer colonies, etc. Ants prove to mostly not care and the bubble pops.
Humans decide aliens caused the uplift, begin praying to aliens for their own uplift
Humans wage war to destroy all ants, resulting destruction plus lack of ants leads to human extinction as well.
Ants used to cross air-gap in unnetworked computers. Eventually hackers discover a way to hack ants and thousands of highly secured computers are compromised.
Ant exercise program advertised. It is terrible and the progenitor is eventually sued out of existence.
Ant mafia develops.
New genius-ant-proof containers developed to store food.
Filler text for preview purposes....
Take-back-to-nest ant poison stops working
Can form treaties with ants to stay out of my kitchen in exchange for sugar cubes
Ants develop anti-poison technology
Ants identify humans as source of poison and begin formulating counter attacks
Ants identify humans as source of food and begin worshipping them
Discworld/Children of Time style computers → less dependence on rare earth metals
Ants begin taking out poison factories
Ants begin raiding poison factories to use on other bugs
Massive decrease in ant predators, as ants organize to take them down → increase in other insects eaten by those predators. Spider in SimAnt taken down instantly
Ants used as spies in war → new and better pesticides, ant proofing, and ant detection
Necrocolony in chernobyl begins biting other colonies and turning them into zombies
That species of ant in Europe that’s all one giant supercolony learns to distinguish between colonies and thus war is returned.
Giant increase in funding for studying ants → I regret not going to grad school to study eusocial insects now that it’s both interesting and profitable
Ants can be hired to do microcleaning, Disney-style.
Microconstruction takes off as ants are used as construction labor
Ants weather proof their shelter
Ants get good at hiding their colonies, but you can hire ants to find other ant colonies.
Ant chemical detectors, similar to the bee detectors we have now.
Huge debate about the morality of ant farms
Ants can coordinate to have a single item carried by many at once.
Ants develop heating and cooling systems for their colonies, expanding their possible range.
Ants discover global warming and develop carbon sink technology, we are all saved.
Ants develop eugenics program leading to super ants.
Ants learn to conglomerate into large shapes, can act as humanoid → competing with humans for jobs. They are treated like illegal immigrants.
Ants recognize nuclear war as threat, organize worldwide campaign to disable all nukes simultaneously
Ants recognize nuclear war as awesome for them because it kills their smartest predators, organize worldwide simultaneous launch.
Process of uplifting teaches humans about the development of intelligence → brings about or prevents UFAI.
Process of uplifting teaches humans about the development of intelligence → terrorists and governments uplift other animals to be used as spies. Every animal becomes suspect, biome is nuked and paved.
Ant art becomes possible and trendy, creating an art bubble that eventually pops. Art colonies then left to starve to death as their work is no longer valuable.
Ants as watch dogs: learn to identify family members and trip alarm if someone comes in without one of them. Fire ants used as full guard dogs.
Ants used to clean infected wounds and do microsurgeries.
Jains and other sects that honor insect life become smug and righteous, leverage into better treatment for all insects just in case.
No construction can take place without an Ant Impact Statement. Ants become new construction chokepoint, get rich off of NIMBY bribes.
Ant digging abilities used to find treasure.
Ants replace mine rats.
Ants employed to keep public areas clean. Parks, beaches, etc become way less disgusting.
Ants used for simple home automation, like pet feeders.
Beautiful ant farms placed in museums, later looked back on as akin to when we displayed humans in zoos.
Ant colonies develop mental illnesses. They are made hopelessly worse by human psychologists. Ant psychologists become a thing.
Ratatouille but with ants
[redacted]
Ants take over contagious-disease medical care, as they can’t possibly get sick from a human disease. Human doctors and nurses very upset about this, attempt to block with protests and strikes but that just accelerate ant dominance.
Movie about child with ant colony best friend.
Ant-facing businesses become the hot new thing, billions invested in tiny furniture, nicer colonies, etc. Ants prove to mostly not care and the bubble pops.
Humans decide aliens caused the uplift, begin praying to aliens for their own uplift
Humans wage war to destroy all ants, resulting destruction plus lack of ants leads to human extinction as well.
Ants used to cross air-gap in unnetworked computers. Eventually hackers discover a way to hack ants and thousands of highly secured computers are compromised.
Ant exercise program advertised. It is terrible and the progenitor is eventually sued out of existence.
Ant mafia develops.
New genius-ant-proof containers developed to store food.
Omega comes to you and says, “I just flipped a coin, and if it had come up heads and you had studied eusocial organisms in grad school...”
I really like how you teased out two-step implications in #6, #9, and #10!