• There are ten thousand trillion ants on Earth (BBC).
• An ant has 250,000 neurons, equivalent to 2.5 lobsters.
• If a BBC trillion is a thousand billion, that gives 2.5 × 10^21 global ant neurons.
• There are 7.5 × 10^9 people in the world.
• Humans have 8.6 × 10^10 neurons per capita.
• Thus there are 6.5 × 10^20 human neurons on Earth.
• 6.5 × 10^20 human neurons vs. 2.5 × 10^21 ant neurons puts the ants ahead.
• But synapses provide a networking effect.
• That’s why an ant couldn’t invent a Walkman.
• But ants are also superorganisms. {cf. holobiont}
• Some ant colonies contain millions of individuals.
• Ant colonies coordinate just fine without portable stereos.
• There are also ant supercolonies, cooperating groups of colonies.
• A supercolony in Japan has as many ants as the U.S. has people.
• In 2009, a global megacolony of Argentine ants was identified.
• The megacolony contains Japanese, Californian and European supercolonies.
• This megacolony is the most populous nonhuman society known.
• Ants wage war.
• Ants practice slavery.
• Ants domesticate aphids for their honeydew secretions.
• Ants eat their domesticated aphids.
• This interaction has been recorded in Ancient Chinese writings and is noted as one of the oldest instances of biological pest control.
• Some ants have obligate relationships with farmed insects, each depending on the other to survive.
• Acropyga is a subterranean ant genus.
• The Acropyga queen carries a gravid mealybug during her nuptial flight to found a new colony.
• Carpenter ants practice suicidal altruism.
• In autothysis, the ant explodes, spraying invaders with toxic glue.
• There is an ant Wikipedia at AntWiki.org.
• AntWiki contains many anonymous edits showing surprisingly good language skill.
• The word "formic" comes from the Latin word for ant, formica.
• Formic acid is used as a preservative and antibacterial agent in livestock feed.
• Formic acid was made by distillation of ant bodies.
• Formication is the sensation of bugs crawling on or under the skin.
• Ants are the official insect of Verizon.
there's also this to explain: https://gfycat.com/richwearybantamrooster
That’s why an ant couldn’t invent a Walkman.
Yet. In the future though...
Ants use sound differently than we do. They also don't have ears. As such, "the Walkman" would probably not be one of their first invention.