This is a key plot point in the (very good) science fiction novel "Children of Time".
this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2026
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Yeah but those were human breed spiders the size of your arm that thought the malfunctioning AI in a satellite was a god, whom controlled the ants.
Spoiler
There was a native bug species already hiding inside the ant colonies.
The spiders reverse-engineered their trick to gain control over the ants.
I forgot that occurred. Secondly, I’ve only read that book. Haven’t read the rest of the series.
I've read the second one, too.
It has a really weird (IMO flawed) narrative arc and is much more confusing.
The second half of it mostly deals with issues translating another race's language.
And it's written from the point of view of the spiders who are trying to translate.
So you as the reader also have no idea what's going on most of the time.
Its ending leads into a direction where I decided I'm not interested in the rest of the series anymore.
Fascinating!