More seriously, I find emergent intelligence a very interesting phenomenon. For example; while no single ant has the capacity to comprehend the scale of a river, they can build bridges out of leaves and fellow ants to cross said river, a clear act of 'problem-solving' that is beyond the abilities of individual ants, yet arises as a result of the interactions of the various ants with each other and their environment.
Eusocial organisms collective behaviors in general are very interesting to me, especially when stigmergy causes manifest behaviors the individual organisms cannot achieve. Mobile siphonophores for an additional example.
I think we still have a great deal to learn about how general intelligence can be achieved through simple systems from eusocially stigmergic organisms.
I find it quite hard to believe you couldn't do even better if you were a single mind perceiving what the ants did and controlling them (which is how you are set up in this game). A single mind can, worst case, simulate the rules each ant follows, so it can never be worse than the social behavior is. But the ants individually can't simulate a single large mind (for one thing, they wouldn't have all the information it would have).
It'd be like writing a chess engine by writing a different AI for each piece. Splitting up the AI gives you more problems, not less.
(That's not to say that you couldn't evolve a good set of local rules to follow in this game, of course!)
Aichallenge.org has started their third AI contest this year: Ants.
I mentioned this in the open thread, and there was a discussion about possibly making one or more "official" LessWrong teams. D_Alex has offered a motivational prize. If this interests you, please discuss in the comments!