The use of an array of tactics to baffle the perception in conflict is not new, nor is the strategy confined to the human species.
Predators who exploit the perceptual deficiencies of prey are common in nature. As human hunters wear camouflage, spread scents and simulate game calls to imitate prey animals, Paussid beetles forge chemical signals, blinding ant species they prey on to their presence among them in the nest. One famous human group employed similar tactics. Hasan ibn Sabah’s Assassins.
Ibn Sabah allegedly learned his art of mind control from priests of the mysteries in Egypt, but whatever the origin of the tactics, the Assassins used hypnotic induction, symbolism, stage magic and drugs create a belief system which insured 100 % loyalty and instant compliance with leader’s instructions.
Nation state rulers have great difficulty securing large numbers of people willing to die on command. Hasan al Sabah’s Assassins prospered for 300 years and spread their agents through the middle east because they could create fanatically loyal adherents who would raise families, live amongst the opponent for 30 years, and remain ‘’’instantly obedient to leader’s orders – even when ordered to commit assassinations certain to result in capture and execution.’’’
Let us consider the bugs. Certain beetles are walking organic chem labs, they synthesize explosives, chemical warfare agents, sex changing molecules – they read and write the language of the victim's perceptions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardier_beetle
"Ant-nest beetles (Paussus) are the quintessential Trojan horses of the insect world. They hack the complex communication system of ants, allowing them to blend into the ant society and be treated as royalty, all the while preying upon the ants and the ants' brood and duping the ants into rearing their young.
How would we transpose this pattern. To what other species might this apply?
…Here we present results of the first molecular-based phylogeny of ant-nest beetles, which reveals that this symbiosis has produced one of the most stunning examples of rapid adaptive radiation documented to date.
"A very successful strategy. "
Human beings perceive only a narrow band of visible light wave lengths and hear only a narrow range sound frequencies. Not one human in a million recognizes the large blind spot in the middle of our visual field until it is demonstrated. We never suspect our senses are not all there is, or other species could possibly take advantage of our limited perception. Tiny eye movements called saccade each take 100 ms, during which time we are blind, and our visual cortex supplies a matching image which we perceive as continuous.
No big deal, except that saccades are so frequent that 100 ms blindness per saccade sums to 4 hrs a day.
https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Explosive-Adaptive-Radiation-and-Extreme-Phenotypic-Moore-Robertson/64f28dbf2f4c4ed67578ed3ac63a92da68c02801
https://www.britannica.com/science/blind-spot
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