I recently read a great article in "National Geographic" about Swarm Intelligence. The basic model based on studying species that swarm (birds, bees, ants, fish, etc.) states that the simple actions of an individual adds up to the complex behavior of a group. How? By countless interactions between each (responsible) individual in the swarm. Based on local information, swarm species pay close attention to the bird, insect next to them and the response creates a collective whole.I sometimes ponder, does my little dent in this ginormous world really make a difference -- is my treading lightly (and teaching my children to do the same) really going to benefit any of the larger issues we need to change in society? Well, using my friends Molly and George as an example, and based on Swarm Intelligence, the solar panels on the roof of their house and their biodeisel cars in their driveway are, unwittingly, communicating to others around them, who are in turn communicating to those nearby. Self, family, community, world.
Whether humans are pack animals, swarm species, herds (probably a mixture of all types), management at large corporations study swarm intelligence applying it to organization and decision making. Luckily, us non-corporate types don't have to study it, we can just live it.
4 comments:
I'm flattered, truly flattered. You make a ginormous dent in my world. Is a dent a compliment? I mean to say, you are at the top of my list of good things. I'm glad we swarm together.
According to Mark Twain, you are alone. There is no God. There is no Universe. There is only you. And you are a thought. A useless, errant thought. (See The Mysterious Stranger, final paragraph).
So this swarm thing is beautiful because what your think of as your mind invented it to beautify your universe, whose injustices and cruelties you also created. So if you leave a dent, it is in yourself and is essentially pointless.
He was really bitter at the end. Why do I still love that story so much?
On a less Twainian note, I think this swarm connection explains why everyone is so sexualized. My sex sex sex approach is bouncing off everybody. But it must have been fed into me at some point. I'm a tool of the flock, and can't be blamed for a fixation that is simply a function of the Human Swarm. Or Emerson's "oversoul." Or Freud's "collective unconcious."
Or, as it is now called, "the Internet."
A "tool of the flock." When are you writing that song???
tonight!
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