Jul 30, 2007 0
Swarm Theory
The July 2007 issue of National Geographic has an article on swarm intelligence, where ’simple creatures follow simple rules, (with) each one acting on local information.’ No one creature sees the big picture nor tells any other creature what to do.Along with the many examples nature provides on swarm behavior, the article touches on several examples of collaborative behavior such as Wikipedia, the military’s research into reconnaissance bots, and even Google’s page ranking methodology. The article concludes:
Such thoughts underline an important truth about collective intelligence: Crowds tend to be wise only if individual members act responsibly and make their own decisions. A group won’t be smart if its members imitate one another, slavishly follow fads, or wait for someone to tell them what to do. When a group is being intelligent, whether it’s made up of ants or attorneys, it relies on its members to do their own part. For those of us who sometimes wonder if it’s really worth recycling that extra bottle to lighten our impact on the planet, the bottom line is that our actions matter, even if we don’t see how.