The classification of intelligence has to meet certain standards in order for society to consider someone or a system intelligent. In “The Myth of the Ant Queen” by Steven Johnson, he expresses that a system doesn’t rely on one individual but a large group of individuals to work as one in order to become successful. He compares the organization of an ant colony with the structure of a city. Johnson views both examples as similar, that the level of intelligence for the colony and city as one and the same. However, it is also viewed as different, that the level for the ant colony is completely different than the level of the city. One is comparing the natural instinct and their lively hood while the other is a man made structure to better please…show more content… Johnson mentions the city of Manchester and how it is structured, it is built so that the wealth class cannot see the working class and vise versa. The city is built so that those people that do not have much stay on the sign that is mostly run down and filthy, while those of wealthy stay in a world where everything is simply beautiful and clean. Two completely different worlds living together in one city. The city was “accidentally” built in this manner, however, the way the city was built it was purposely done so separate the two value of incomes. “Here humanity attains its most complete development and its most brutish; here civilization works its miracles, and civilized man is turned back almost into a savage.” (Johnson 196) The structure of the city was made to seclude and isolate the working class into a corner, making it unbearable to live in such a place. A system that was built in this way isn’t fair but also it isn’t productive. It is not fair due to the fact that the system is allowing for people to throw away others into run down areas of the city and limit the extents that they can visit. The city adds so much restrictions that it isn’t allowing for people to explore the place they call home. It isn’t productive due to the fact that the working class people are extending themselves beyond belief. While the people with wealth are not doing much of anything. The…show more content… The system doesn’t isolate people from the rest of their environment, it helps assist it. As the ant colony is intelligent due to generations of evolution, they operate in a simple system. However, Manchester isn’t an intelligent system, as stated previously, it takes away too many benefits from people. It doesn’t help everyone in the city, it just makes the life of some easier and the life of others harder than needed. An intelligent system is a system that aids everyone in the community, as the community supports the system as well. The way it will appear it is a push and pull method, Manchester only seems to pull, taking more than it actually needs to survive. Although Johnson makes it emerge that both the ant colony and Manchester are functioning on the same frequency, they truly aren’t. Taking a closer look, it can be identified that the ant colony is an intelligent system because the other ants aren’t dictating where the others should work, the “queen” doesn’t do anything at all. Each and every ant are given two job to protect and gather, they all have the same job and are all treated equal, no one is above the other. Manchester isn’t an intelligent, not everyone is equal, people live in different forms of homes, they live in different areas, everything is so different that it doesn’t even look fair. So, what is an intelligent system? An intelligent system is a
