The term 'Superorganism' describes a being which is more than the sum of its parts. A colony of bees is a good example. The thousands of individuals who make up the hive have three distinct body forms, the queen, workers and drones. All but the queen live transient lives, passing through the hive like water through a pool. In high summer workers may only live 6 weeks. During that time the individuals spends periods of specialist activity, in the nursery, as cleaners, guards and forragers etc. Apart from the hive, the individuals would have no purpose and quickly die. The colony is the continuum, to which even the queen is secondary. Anyone who keeps bees will testify to the 'character' of a colony. One day it is gentle, the next it may be like an angry caged beast inside the hive. Many biologist view the individuals as free moving parts of a single body, each equipped with a sophisticated little computer and special nectar gathering tools. The whole creature maintains its cohesion by a complex nervous system based on chemical exchange. The total colony, the comb, bees, grubs and stores form the body of the superorgamsm which, in theory at least, is immortal. Swarming is the colony reproducing.

There are thousands of 'superorgamsms' in existence, many of which are insects.

In our own species this process is at a most advanced stage. The Superorganism that began developing permanent body forms in the Neolithic have now swollen into enormous cities. We have witnessed the development of monsters by separate communities growing together into a single mass, or being swallowed up by a dominant neighbour or newcomer. We have also seen separate communities becoming welded together by intercommunication, warfare, trade and interdependance, so that large unified 'nations' have developed. We can even see the beginning of huge international states, and speak of a world community.

Yet most of us are still conceiving of a 'human' community when we look at this geopolitical phenomena It is important to be clear that this view is not accurate.