Concept continued
(swarm theory and emergence)
Concept continued
(swarm theory and emergence)
| Swarm Theory as explained by writers such as Kevin Kelly and Steve Johnson is an attempt to describe system phenomena that give rise to complex adaptive systems or superorganisms - such as cities, the human body, the human brain, ant colonies, the weather, biospheres, and the Internet. In each of these cases relatively "stupid" elements or agents, acting locally and with no knowledge of other similar agents at work, will create complex systems that have a life of their own. | |||
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As Stephen Johnson writes in Emergence, "Local turns out to be the key term in understanding the power of swarm logic. We see emergent behavior in systems like ant colonies when the individual agents in the system pay attention to their immediate neighbors rather than wait for orders from above. They think locally and act locally, but their collective action produces global behavior." |
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