Comments on: Swarm

Swarm

homunculus — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 18:51:34 -0800

From Ants to People, an Instinct to Swarm. Carl Zimmer looks at the work of Iain Couzin. [Via The Loom.]

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 18:56:37 -0800

But there was only one human who was badass enough to swarm individually. "ICE CUBE WILL SWARM ON ANY MUTHAFUCKA IN A BLUE UNIFORM!"

By: hexatron

hexatron — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 19:20:38 -0800

See the pretty boids, swarming for the last 20 years. It seems those who ignore history can make a pretty good academic living rediscovering it.

By: Pants!

Pants! — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 19:28:26 -0800

The optimal army ants in the computer model reminded me of "bee space"

By: homunculus

homunculus — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 19:30:59 -0800

Evolution: Survival of the selfless, by David Sloan Wilson and Edward O. Wilson (subscription required). Goodbye Selfish-Gene: A New Upheaval in the Science of Human Behavior

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 19:52:14 -0800

Want to see something mind boggling and exquisitely beautiful? Starlings swarming in England. A couple of swarming behaviors that cause totally different visceral reactions in me. The swarms of millipedes (nightmare) in a small town that have been going on annually for centuries and swarms of starlings at twilight...love the spectator comments... here, here, here....can't get enough of these waves of birds in flight, more Blackbirds swarming in Montana. As ever, thanks for the interesting and stimulating post homunculus.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 20:26:38 -0800

In Denmark the swarming of the starlings is called Sort Sol, Black Sun.

By: ZenMasterThis

ZenMasterThis — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 20:33:45 -0800

But you will never see ants stuck in gridlock. "We haven't evolved in the societies we currently live in," Dr. Couzin said. So, the next step in our evolution is cars than can climb over each other? Sweet.

By: stavrogin

stavrogin — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 20:40:15 -0800

Get him!

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 21:19:10 -0800

Nice starling action there, nickyskye. I was fortunate enough a few years back to witness just such flocks in flight: caught them looking out of the windows of some trains rolling through Germany, France, etc. It is a truly spellbinding sight. Magic.

By: Aghast.

Aghast. — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 21:59:09 -0800

The characterizing property of a swarm intelligence system is its ability to act in a coordinated way without the presence of a coordinator or of an external controller.

By: davejay

davejay — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 23:10:41 -0800

From one of Homunculus's in-comment links: ...reconcile their years of bamboozling the public with cute stories about how this or that... Why do people think they can write like this without throwing all of their credibility out the window?

By: eustatic

eustatic — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 23:19:46 -0800

looks and sounds like Critical Mass.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 23:27:10 -0800

Why do people think they can write like this without throwing all of their credibility out the window? It is annoying. If the main article wasn't subscription only, I wouldn't have included that commentary. I hope they make the two Wilsons' article available to everyone at some point.

By: imperium

imperium — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 05:30:35 -0800

Iain's brother Mikey always swarmed harder than he did. True story.

By: petersn1

petersn1 — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 17:03:29 -0800

Read Prey by Michael Crichton. People who study swarms give me the creeps.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 18:34:02 -0800

Michael Crichton is a creep.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 09:48:40 -0800

Ah, here's the complete article by the two Wilson's (scroll down past the Salon piece).