Why are there no slave rebellions?

Actually, the full title above should be “Why are there no slave ant rebellions?” But it works for humans the same way. Slavery is a “functioning social system” in both species.

Both are social species. What does that mean?

It means that some individuals form a group – that they no longer act only in their own interest, but caring for the other group members as well. Surely not because they love all the others, but simply because the group makes them stronger, increases the own chance to survive.

And how are groups build? Like any other information processing system: by communication = information processing.

Btw: Do you know how to detect systems or subsystems? By measuring the “density” of communication. Where the density decreases (or increases) you have found a boundary of a (sub)system. Remember SOA? To have more flexible, easy-to-modify systems, you have to make the members/objects more autarchic, to loosen coupling – means to lower the density of communication.

The more dense the communication, the less individual the members – look at your body: Build of billions of cells working together, highly specialized to their tasks.

And now what?

Suicide is the keyword here, because as long as cells live as individuals, they are something like immortal. In a human body only the ovum is allowed to survive in its successors (it’s the only cell which undergoes two births: “all of them are present at birth”) – each and every other cell has to die after their lifetimes and many, many even earlier: they have to die by real suicide. It’s a simple tool of Mother Nature to create interfaces, which are necessary for the information processing – she creates much too many cells on both sides of the connection to increase the chance of their coupling, sending unfocused communication signals. When the contact is created (and communication starts), then the flood of communications is controlled, centered towards the interface – the other cells, now definitely dispensable, are cut off the communication stream...

and in just one hour they are not only dead but dissolved without a trace.

So suicide is nothing “unusual” in a social group, when the communication is dense enough to create something like a “body” out of the different members, since the “will to survive” moves from the members to the body. (Darwin: if it wouldn’t do that, the body would simply dissolve again and not be able to reproduce itself.)

Humans are near to that state, i guess, because i don’t know from any other apes which made suicide to a rite like we did.

That’s one precondition for slavery: the willingness to sacrifice for the own group.

The next is – look a the ants – lacking intelligence. Because the amazon ants, the slaveholders, use mimikry to stir the willingness of the slaves. The amazon queen “smells” like the own queen – and the kings and popes of the human societies “smell” like fathers, pretend to protect and educate “their children” (s. Rousseau). And if the slaves are not stupid enough, a slowly changing system is able to get them used to obedience and harm against their truest interests – and more important, even the truest interests of their children.

“The slaves build homes for and feed the slave-makers, who cannot do anything but fight. They depend completely on their slaves for survival.” Sounds familiar.

The original quote? Replace “slaves” with “slave ants” and “slave-makers” with Amazon ants.

The great difference? “One ant species in the American southwest makes other ants their slaves by raiding their nests and making off with the pupae”.

Only the humans treat their own species so badly.

Remember Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler)? He is “credited” to have killed up to 100,000 persons by staking them. His people allowed him to do so in the name of “national security”, because he was the king and he promised to defend them against enemies. But he didn’t only stake foreigners, he also let his own people “die an agony”, just because he could and he was in the mood for – exactly like Mr. Schwarzenegger today. So question: Who needs foreign enemies with leaders like that?

Seems as if that species deserves to lose Mother Natures goodwill.