Chapter 12 Bee Swarm Thinking (6)

015's office

"The model represented by a small bee's body is only applicable to the tiny wing chamber, tissue and chitin that weighs one tenth of its gram. The body of a bee hive forms a unified whole, worker bee, drone, pollen and honeycomb. A honeycomb mechanism weighing 50 pounds emerges from the individual part of a bee. The hive has a lot of things that any of its components does not have. A spotted bee brain has only 6 days of memory, while the honeycomb as a whole has a memory time of 3 months, twice the average lifespan of a bee. (Excerpt from "Out of Control" author Kevin Kelly), 660, why do you think this is?" 015    A sip of coffee.

660 replied: "I think the answer to this question should lie in the characteristics of the bee colony organization. This kind of organization has four characteristics: 1. There is no forced central control.

2. Sub-units have the characteristics of autonomy

3. The secondary units are highly connected to each other

The impact of 4 points on points forms a nonlinear causal relationship through the network.”

015 nodded, "There is a word I think is very important. That word is emergence. This is a common law about living systems: the existence of low levels cannot infer the complexity of the higher levels. Whether it is a computer or a brain, or which method it is - mathematics, physics or philosophy - if it is not actually run, it cannot reveal the emergence pattern that is integrated into the individual part. Only the actual existence of bee colonies can reveal whether the characteristics of the bee colony are integrated in the body. Theorists say this: The fastest, most direct and only reliable way to understand the emergence structure contained in a system is to run it. To truly "express" a complex nonlinear equation to reveal its actual behavior, there is no shortcut to it. Because it has too many behaviors hidden."

"That's why you have cultivated so many clones? You want to study groups, so you just created a large group of people so that you can just study what groups you want to study and get them in line."

015 thought about it and said, "One of the reasons. In fact, isn't it a very fun thing to watch them do exercises, practice Tai Chi, and set up formations? Sometimes, watching that large group of people do this and that under your command, you will feel that you have an instant upgrade from a human to a god."

"To be honest, it feels great to be a God. I was lucky to experience it last week. But being a God actually has its disadvantages." 660 showed a look of incompetence.

"What's the disadvantage?" 015 asked with interest.

660 sighed: "Responsibility, responsibility is too heavy. When I think of the wealth and life of so many people, I feel that I am not worthy and I can't do it! Take those clones as an example. If one day our base can't afford them, what kind of destination should we give them?"

"Door, alas, sometimes we can't control our own destination, so what qualifications do we have to determine the destination of others? In fact, we are prone to make a mistake, that is, being self-centered. In fact, many things are decentralized. Take bee swarms as an example. Is the queen bee really the center of the bee swarm?"

The magic of "bee swarm thinking" is that there is no bee controlling it, but there is an invisible hand, a hand that emerges from a large number of dull members, controlling the entire group. Its magic is also that quantitative change causes qualitative change. To transition from a single insect body to a cluster body, you only need to increase the number of insects, so that a large number of insects can gather together so that they can communicate with each other. At a certain stage, when the complexity reaches a certain level, the "cluster" will emerge from the "cluster". The inherent properties of the insect contain the cluster, which contains this magic. Everything we find in the bee hive is hidden among the individual bee. However, although you can use a cyclotron and an x-ray machine to explore a bee, you can never find the characteristics of the bee. (Excerpt from Kevin Kelly, the author of "Out of Control")
Chapter completed!