There’s a weird phenomenon in nature: the ant death spiral or, less morbidly, the ant mill.
Basically, if a group of army ants loses track of the pheromone trail they’re following, they just start following other ants. If those ants happen to double back and pick up the pheromone trail left by the lost ants, then they start following each other in a big circle.
They will then follow each other in an endless circle, trying to find their way home, until they die of exhaustion.
This is an example of an emergent phenomenon. By following an incredibly simple set of rules, a complex behavior emerges from interactions that the individual ants would never behave this way on their own.
And it’s an incredibly maladaptive emergent behavior. These ants don’t “want” to fruitlessly March themselves do death in an endless circle, but, by following that simple set of rules for survival, they end up destroying themselves.
1/3
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant_mill
HeavenlyPossum /
npub1hk…ls2a5
2024-01-23 18:09:43
Author Public Key
npub1hkcr3hrpsu5skqcnavew9s8gtegat76zyd4fd3zlrrc29h66f2sqtls2a5Published at
2024-01-23 18:09:43Event JSON
{
"id": "6eae5c6366a7eae29d1a9fb726378d2f4d1e5d1a92762ca7875c6280b4cbb7d6",
"pubkey": "bdb038dc6187290b0313eb32e2c0e85e51d5fb42236a96c45f18f0a2df5a4aa0",
"created_at": 1706033383,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"proxy",
"https://kolektiva.social/users/HeavenlyPossum/statuses/111806603842813657",
"activitypub"
]
],
"content": "There’s a weird phenomenon in nature: the ant death spiral or, less morbidly, the ant mill.\n\nBasically, if a group of army ants loses track of the pheromone trail they’re following, they just start following other ants. If those ants happen to double back and pick up the pheromone trail left by the lost ants, then they start following each other in a big circle.\n\nThey will then follow each other in an endless circle, trying to find their way home, until they die of exhaustion.\n\nThis is an example of an emergent phenomenon. By following an incredibly simple set of rules, a complex behavior emerges from interactions that the individual ants would never behave this way on their own.\n\nAnd it’s an incredibly maladaptive emergent behavior. These ants don’t “want” to fruitlessly March themselves do death in an endless circle, but, by following that simple set of rules for survival, they end up destroying themselves.\n\n1/3\n\nhttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant_mill",
"sig": "5e9580ece73cae945b339e853165171762ff5f5d08928c34c3d3c6d4b7d8cfcd3d255beac9da52ce3b4dea68cea94ecff5d3e2affe68ea4f0579fd5f30efff3a"
}