The article mentions apes as being an unlikely heir to humankind as there just aren't many of them. Rats are a candidate and pigs…if they could get tool use. The rats I can see, they already have the nascent ability to muck with tools, but I think they'll have to develop larger brains (frontal lobes) than they have now, which means different body shapes. I think being self-aware is a pretty huge part of pushing a species beyond simple food gathering and shelter.
They mentioned ants as already being the hidden rules and here they got excited for a bit. "Mnny already control the earth, they outnumber us and they can wage affective war. "They also use traditional military rules of engagement to wage war. For instance, they rely on
"shock and awe," in essence swarming their enemies with sheer numbers to overcome them. Ants also throw the weakest, scrawniest members of the colony out front while keeping their "supersoldier" ants to the rear, just as the front lines in many battles are made up of the least trained and most poorly equipped soldiers, Moffett said." Okay, both of those tactics, sheer numbers and poorly equipped soldiers aren't particularly good battlefield tactics (had the Germans been fighting the Soviets and only the Soviets, the Soviets would have lost) and can be overcome…in the case of ants, by this kid:
But the lands on an interesting conclusion, electronic. The biggest winner are machines, created by us. They will come to dominate the world in our absence.
Interesting. Apparently a machine recently passed the voice comp test from bladerunner…er, I mean the Turin test and a researcher was unable to determine, after a series of questions, if it was a machine or a human. And they are saying the singularity moment in 2045…though I think much the much sooner on that.
But a good read. Especially the ants and how they can kill a baby in a crib if they aren't bothered while the eat it over an hour or so.
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