Biological individuals often interact to form cooperative societies that have functional advantages.

How the specifics of these interactions constrain collective performance is not well understood.

In this context, we study how desert ants inform each other about the presence

of food and demonstrate that they use a method of communication which is striking by its

intrinsic simplicity. Namely, the ants convey the presence of food by a single, alerting signal.

This signal is non-specific; it is delivered not only by a recruiter reporting about food but also

by a random collision within the dark nest environment. How can the colony distinguish these

ambiguous signals? We demonstrate that the key to this distinction is a combination of “conviction”

by the ant which has seen the food, and the natural dissipativity of interactions. Thus,

the ants need no language, but just one aptly used “word” pronounced with conviction inside

a noisy environment.