Ants have an amazing ability to communicate with each other and work together to accomplish complex tasks.
Their specialized behavior due to chemical communication is so well developed, in fact, that humans can learn a lot from them about how best to work in teams.
British scientists at the University of Bristol are studying colonies of army ants to understand how they organize themselves and share knowledge. These insects--which come in various sizes--are known for using their bodies as living plugs to cover potholes on the rough terrain between their nest and their prey. When they encounter a hole in their path, they quickly determine which of them is the best fit. The appropriate ant then lies across the gap, allowing the remainder of the group--as many as 200,000 other ants--to step on its back. This important minority of ants optimizes the food collection of the entire colony by literally "paving the way" for the others.
The collective behavior that emerges from a group of social insects, such as ants, can be called "swarm intelligence". Swarm intelligence consists of the self-organization of many individuals that work collectively to find the best solution for a difficult problem.
The concepts of swarm intelligence have been used in a variety of human applications. "Ant colony optimization" has been mimicked as a routing method that improves the efficiency of cargo transfers on airplanes, and has even become a routing technique for moving data across telecommunications networks more smoothly. I guess you could say that our daily lives benefit from the tireless work of ants
螞蟻有一種令人驚奇的能力, 他們能跟夥伴互相溝通並且一起工作, 以完成複雜的任務.
他們特別的行為是利用化學溝通, 事實上, 這類的行為發展良好到足以使人類效法如何使團隊工作達到最好的績效.
Bristol大學的英國科學家正在研究兵蟻的群體以了解他們如何自我組織並且分享知識. 這些有各種尺寸的昆蟲—懂得在巢穴與戰利品的崎嶇的地形上, 利用他們的身體當做活體栓塞, 填滿途中的路面凹坑. 當他們在他們的路徑上遇到一個洞時, 他們會很快地決定他們之中誰是最適合填補這個洞. 最適當的螞蟻會橫躺跨在這個間隙中, 允許其餘的團體—有20萬隻以上的螞蟻, 踩在他的背上通過. 這些少數的重要螞蟻經由真正的為其他螞蟻舖設道路, 以使全部群體的食物收集最佳化.
從社會性昆蟲中呈現出來的集體式行為, 譬如螞蟻, 也可被稱做 ”群體智慧”. 群體智慧是由很多類別的自我組織組成的, 在對於困難的問題, 能靠著全體地工作找出最佳方案.
群體智慧的概念, 人們已經使用在各種運用上. 螞蟻群體最佳化已經被模仿成定通道方法, 改善了在飛機上的貨物傳遞效率. 甚至在通信網路上變成定通道技術, 使資料傳輸更平穩. 我猜你會說我們日常生活得利於這些永不疲倦的螞蟻. |