Ants are more than a hundred million years older than humans, and they cover the land surface of the planet. Probably peo- ple have always watched ants, and probably they have always asked the same question: How can ants get anything done when no one is in charge? Whoever wrote Proverbs 6:6 put it this way: “Look to the ant, thou sluggard—consider her ways and be wise. Without chief, overseer or ruler, she gathers the harvest in the summer to eat in the winter.” The history of our understanding of ant behavior is the history of our changing views of how organizations work.Deborah M. Gordon in Ant Encounters: Interaction Networks and Colony Behavior (chatper 1 – pdf)