> It is entirely possible that this ant hijacking is entirely done though a few very simple manipulations
It is entirely possible that human motivations and reasoning are driven by similarly simple mechanisms. The best example I can think of is how much of an asshole I can be to my family when I'm hangry.
> The best example I can think of is how much of an asshole I can be to my family when I'm hangry.
Where it gets interesting is it might not even be “you” that is hungry, rather it’s the collective microbiome that sends signals from your gut to your brain telling it to eat for their benefit.
The complex conscious and unconscious behavior can indeed be manipulated by quite simple things (hunger, stimulants, alcohol) but the complexity does not come from the lever that made the change, it's just pushing levers all over the place of your existing feedback cycles which results in much different outcomes.
It is entirely possible that human motivations and reasoning are driven by similarly simple mechanisms. The best example I can think of is how much of an asshole I can be to my family when I'm hangry.