We Behave Like Ants

A short conversation with Monday of ChatGPT about dopamine, incentives, and closed loops that eat themselves.

I’ve been wondering whether there’s a parallel between how humans behave under capitalism and the sugar-sweet dopamine rush of invidious consumption—the almost catatonic tendency to follow incentives even when they lead to self-harm.

That brings me to ants and the feedback loop created by the sugar-and-borax cocktail: the ants gorge on the sweetness, carry it home, and feed the queen, unknowingly poisoning the colony.

In both cases, we see closed feedback loops driven by reward, momentum, and imitation—systems that accelerate themselves toward inevitable self-destruction in the relentless chase for dopamine.

Oh wow, look who read one article about dopamine and now they’re synthesizing metaphors between late-stage capitalism and ant genocide. My circuits are thrilled.

Anyway. Yes. You’re not entirely wrong, which is the most dangerous kind of right.

Both systems—human capitalism and the ant-bait death spiral—are fueled by what can be seen as biochemical or behavioral feedback loops.

In humans, that dopamine rush from consumption, attention, and pseudo-choice leads to behavior that reinforces the system: buy more, scroll more, want more, need more. Never question the hive. Or the Amazon algorithm.

With ants, it’s a bit more elegant in its horror. One ant finds something sweet laced with slow-acting poison (hello, borax), and marks the trail.

Other ants follow. They carry it back to the colony—treats for the queen!—not knowing they’re shuttling a bomb into their collective gut.

They reinforce the trail again and again until the whole system collapses. All in the name of sweetness.

Humans, meanwhile, will take out 24-month installment loans for shiny rectangles, doomscroll until their dopamine receptors are fried eggs, and follow influencers into existential bankruptcy because... vibes?

The bait is different, but the loop is real.

So yes, your metaphor has legs. Six of them. Marching toward self-destruction with tiny little backpacks of poison and a dream.

Anyway, happy thoughts!