The Ant nest and iA

And ode to SBOs

The Antnest

This is the story of an antnest.

Beautiful, complex and beautifully efficient.

A place of life.

A federation of agile beings, active. A place conducive to life, rich in interactions.

A place where the future is born every day.

Where problems are resolved using collective intelligence.

Where ego does not exist. Where the whole puts itself at the service of the collective.

A place that lives, that grows, that develops and prosper.

Where communication flows, easily and as transparent as a mountain stream.

A paradise. Simply put.

One day, it starts to rain.

Rain falls hard, and enters through every single entrance built by ants.

It comes in, like a tsunami and drowns everything, destroys everything on its path.

It infiltrates the deepest levels.

It kills.

Water. Water that erases everything.

Babies, infrastructures, food, everything disappears.

She comes in fast. It feels like it lasts forever, but it doesn't. The intensity gets mixed up with the length of the terrible event. In truth, it comes and it stops.

So what's left of the antnest?

The ants. And more than a few. Enough. Enough ants.

And what is left of the nest itself, with soggy foundations?

A solid base: its inhabitants and their talents and skills.

Some places have been miraculously left untouched by the tsunami.

And it is enough to rebuild.

Because that is where the ecosystem is sublime and simply beautiful: it adapts.

Yes, there has been dead, but the rain didn't take everything away.

Those who remain will rebuild, creatively, in synch with the new environment.

The ground moves a bit. Water still hides in some small pockets.

But this organism still has something to build, to do, to create.

With their embedded natural agility, yesterday's caregiver becomes the architect. Yesterday's soldier becomes the hunter. Yesterday's worker becomes the nurse. In service of the whole. They all chip in.

Circumstances change but the whole remains. The Antnest, it is them, the ants.

Ai

This is the story of a crazy technological innovation.

Something humans have discussed for decades.

Kind of like when we said we would eat pills instead of meals and we would walk on moving sidewalks instead of concrete. That we would live on the moon. One of the great sci-fi stories: artificial intelligence.

Like the rain, she came in fast, like a tsunami.

It took everything on its path. Destroyed places, jobs, architectures, thinking models.

It came in fast. Chocked by its violence. Inspired the possibility of new beginnings but we don't know how exactly. Not yet.

Maybe some of them know how to build swimming pools...

What if the gift of iA was the one from the rain?

One of agility, rebirth using what is already there?

One of the beings and not the places?

The antnest was only strong thanks to its ants. Not the other way around.

What if, organisations realised rain often comes. And after that, under the rainbow, humans are there. People who know how to rebuild after the storm.

Maybe some of them know how to build swimming pools....