Hey Kevin, thanks for the ramblings!

I love this idea "Each artificial neuron could, e.g, represent an individual bee. How would that neuron interact with the rest of the network? Would it be a network within a network?

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This reminds me of a sci-fi I read years ago, it is called The Swarm https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/68146.The_Swarm

Very similar to what you said here, a collective of ocean-unknown-cells became an intelligent being that prompted the ocean to wage war against humans.

:) happy to chat more about these ideas!