system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How do ants decide the physical structure of their colonies?

Does it follow some sort of pattern? How do they decide?
gpt
They don't decide in the sense of a conscious, intentional, planned or designed thing. Instead, each one of many individuals of various castes (think occupations) follows a few very simple procedures that collectively result in an elaborate layout. This kind of thing, where amazing complexity can arise out of the behavior of many simple agents' simple actions, happens all over nature and is called *emergence*. Here the complex physical structure is said to *emerge* from the acts of all the ants.

It's a little bit like how the astounding beauty of a snowflake arises from the rattling around and latching together of a whole slew of water molecules. Those H2O's never sit down at a meeting and hammer out an agreement. Instead each one just follows the laws of physics, which, given the unique conditions in their immediate surroundings, account for the emergence of *that* snowflake.