Swarm Smarts
Scientific American, 18 (1):
40--47 (Feb 1, 2008)DOI: 10.1038/scientificamerican0208-40sp
Abstract
Using ants and other social insects as models, computer scientists have created software agents that cooperate to solve complex problems, such as the rerouting of traffic in a busy telecom network Insects that live in colonies—ants, bees, wasps, termites—have long fascinated everyone from naturalists to artists. Maurice Maeterlinck, the Belgian poet, once wrote, "What is it that governs here?